THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 



THE 
FIGHTING CHEYENNES 



BY 

GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1915 



E'99 






Copyright, 1915, bt 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published October, 1915 




NOV -5 1915 ^ 

©CU414 4 05 



i^. 



PREFACE 

This book deals with the wars of the Cheyennes. A fighting 
and a fearless people, the tribe was almost constantly at war with 
its neighbors, but until 1856 was friendly to the whites. 

The Cheyennes fought well, but they will fight no more. 
Their wars have long been over. Their tribal wanderings ceased 
before 1880. Since then they have been confined on two reser- 
vations, one in Oklahoma, the other in Montana. 

When their struggles with the white men began, some of their 
older and wiser men strove earnestly to preserve peace, but their 
efforts failed. In an Indian camp individual liberty is the law, 
and the Cheyennes were a proud, headstrong, and obstinate 
people. 

During these first wars between the whites and the Cheyennes, 
the United States Government was struggling for its very life. 
Its attention was concentrated on the war between the North and 
the South, and the movements of a few Indians on the thinly 
settled frontier attracted little notice. The so-called Sand Creek 
Massacre took place toward the close of the Civil War, and the 
ensuing interference with trans-Missouri travel led to an in- 
quiry by Congress. The published results of this inquiry first 
made this tribe known to the general public. As more and more 
people pushed into the West, there was more and more fighting 
with Indians, until in 1878-9 it ceased — so far as the Cheyennes 
were concerned. 

For many years the government of the Indians by the United 
States was carried on in haphazard and often dishonest fashion 
by officials alike ignorant and careless of the customs and ways 
of thought of the savages with whom they were dealing. The 
killing of a large number of men, women, and children at Fort 
Robinson in January, 1879, was the direct result of such unfor- 
tunate ignorance. 

Since the Indians could not write, the history of their wars 
has been set down by their enemies, and the story has been told 
always from the hostile point of view. White writers have lauded 



vi PREFACE 

white courage and claimed white successes. If it has been neces- 
sary to confess defeat, they have abused those who overcame 
them, as the defeated always abuse the victors. 

Evidently there is another side to this history, and this other 
side is one which should be recorded; and, since the wars are 
now distant in time, the Indians' own descriptions of these battles 
may be read without much prejudice. I have tried to present 
the accounts by whites and Indians, without comment, 

I acknowledge with cordial thanks help received from friends 
who took part in the later Cheyenne wars, and who have com- 
mented on and criticised the chapters dealing with the battles 
in which they fought. These accounts are thus in fact nar- 
ratives by eye-witnesses. Such assistance has been given me by 
Major-General E. S. Godfrey, by Major-General W. S. Schuyler, 
by Colonel Homer W. Wheeler, by Colonel D. L. Brainard, by 
Colonel E. P. Andrus, by Captain L. H. North, by George Bent, 
and by many Cheyenne friends whose names are mentioned in 
the text. 

Besides this, Mr. Charles B. Reynolds has kindly read the 
manuscript, and Mr. George E. Hyde has verified most of the 
references and has given me the benefit of his careful study of 
the history of early travel on the plains. To all these friends I 
return hearty thanks. 

A long association with the Cheyennes has given me a special 
interest in them, and a special wish that they should be allowed 
to speak for themselves. What the Indians saw in the battles 
here described — and in many others — I have learned during 
years of intimate acquaintance with those who took part in 
them. 

The old time Cheyennes possessed in high degree the savage 
virtues of honesty, trustworthiness, and bravery in the men, and 
of courage, devotion, and chastity in the women. Of the older 
people who took part in the fighting with the white troops some 
are still living and to-day are the only sources of original infor- 
mation concerning the former ways of the wild Cheyennes, the 
old free life of the Western plains. 

G. B. G. 

August 10, 1915. 



CONTENTS 

FAQB 

Preface v 

CHAPTER 

I. The Chetennes 1 

II. The Ways of Warriors 9 

III. A Crow Battle 22 

IV. Wars with the Kiowas and Comanches 32 

V. The Battle on Wolf Creek, 1838 42 

VI. The Peace with the Kiowas, 1840 60 

VII. Wars with the Pawnees 67 

VIII. When the Potawatomi Helped the Kit ka hah ki, 1853 80 

IX. Before Wars Broke Out 93 

X. The Sumner Caaipaign, 1857 107 

XI. Gold in Colorado, 1858-1863 118 

XII. Harrying the Indians, 1864 131 

XIII. Before Sand Creek, 1864 143 

XIV. The Sand Creek Massacre, 1864 159 

XV. Raiding along the Platte, 1865 174 

XVI. The Powder River Expedition, 1865 195 

XVII. Platte Bridge Fight, 1865 207 

XVIII. Fort Phil Kearny, 1866 221 

XIX. Hancock Campaign, 1867 236 

XX. Medicine Lodge Treaty, 1867 254 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXI. Beecher Island Fight, 1868. The Carpenter Fight . 267 

XXII. The Battle of the Washita, 1868 287 

XXIII. Battle of Summit Springs, 1869 299 

XXIV. Fight at Adobe Walls, 1874 308 

XXV. Crook's Fight on the Rosebud, 1876 316 

XXVI. The Custer Battle, 1876 333 

XXVII. Capture of Dull Knife's Village, 1876 . . . 346 

XXVIII. Surrender of Two Moon's Band and Lajme Deer Fight, 

1877 369 

XXIX. Little Wolf and Dull Knife, 1876-1879 .... 383 

XXX. The Fort Robinson Outbreak, 1879 . . . . . .399 

XXXI. Scouting for the Soldiers, 1878-1890 412 

Index 419 



MAPS 

[These rough-sketch maps indicate the relations of localities referred to in the text, 
and, in certain cases, the movements of the Indians over a country the early history 
of wMch is now well-nigh forgotten.] 

PAGE 

Situations of camps and route of attacking Cheyennes and Arapahoes . 51 

The plains, 1850-1860 facing page 109 

The plains in 1864-1865 113 

Blunt's fight 156 

Plan of Cheyenne camp at Sand Creek 165 

Route northward of allied Indian camps, December, 1864, to February, 
1865 facing page 177 

Country raided December, 1864, to February, 1865, showing stage and 
telegraph lines and ranches 190 

Scene of the Fort Phil Kearny fight, 1866 231 

Western Kansas in 1867 246 

Indian country west of Indian Territory, 1868-1874 295 

Diagram of the captiu-e of Dull Knife's village, 1876 . . facing page 352 



THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 



THE CHEYENNES 

The Cheyennes are one of three groups of Indians of the 
Western plains belonging to the Algonquian family. They are 
recent immigrants to the region. According to the statement 
of Black Moccasin,! who was long regarded as their most reliable 
historian — the man with the best memory — some of them reached 
the Missouri River about 1676, two hundred and four winters 
before 1880, when the statement was made. Before this they 
had lived for a time on the river bearing their name, which runs 
into the Red River of the North from the west, and on which one 
of their old village sites still exists. Earlier still they were in 
Minnesota. They have traditions of long journeyings before 
they reached there. 

For a number of years after coming to the Missouri the Chey- 
ennes lived on its banks, cultivating the ground, and occupying 
earth lodges not unlike those used up to recent times by the 
Rees and the Mandans. Gradually they drifted out on the 
plains, gave up their sedentary habits and began to move about 
over the prairie, dwelling in skin lodges and following the buffalo. 
As recently as 1850 they tilled the soil to some extent, and men 
have described to me their mothers' corn patches on the Little 
Missouri at about that date. 

The people whom we know as Cheyennes are made up of two 
related tribes, Tsis tsis'tas and Suh'tai. The latter have been 
absorbed by the former, and have left hardly any trace. They 
were the tribe known to early writers as Sta i tan', i. e., Suh'tai 
he' tan e — a man of the Suhtai. 

1 Mahk sta'vo ySn'st st. 
1 



2 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

I have known many Cheyennes who remembered old people 
who were Suhtai— born in the separate Suhtai camp. They agree 
that the Suhtai language differed somewhat from the Cheyenne, 
"it sounded funny to them," and that the Suhtai had many cus- 
toms of their own which later were laughed at, because unusual. 
In 1831, at the time when Bent's Fort was completed, the Suhtai 
still camped apart by themselves — were still a separate tribe. 

The name Cheyenne is not in use by the tribe. They call 
themselves Tsis tsis' tas, a word variously translated which Rev. 
R. Fetter our authority on the Cheyenne language believes to 
mean "similarly bred." If this is its meaning, it resembles so 
many other Indian tribal names which are explained to mean 
variously, "the people," "the real people," etc., and perhaps 
actually mean "the people," i. e., "the folks," "our folks," "us." 
Tsis tsis'tas might also mean the cut or gashed people, and the 
tribal sign signifies cut or gashed, though often explained as re- 
ferring to striped feathers sometimes, but by no means always, 
used in feathering the arrows. The word Cheyenne is frequently 
explained as coming from the French chien in allusion to the 
Dog Soldiers, but it is, in fact, a Sioux term Sha hi'e la, or 
Sha hi'e na, people speaking language not understood. 

The Sioux speak of those who talk intelligibly to them as 
"white talkers," and call those who speak a language not under- 
stood " red talkers." Fa or i'e is to talk intelligibly. I e'ska used 
as a verb means to speak fluently and intelligently. As a sub- 
stantive the word means an interpreter. In speaking of one who 
talks their language the Dakotas use the verb Ska e'a, to talk 
white. Of one whose language they cannot understand and who 
cannot understand them they say Sha e'a, to talk red; that is, 
unintelligibly. The name given by the Sioux to the Cheyennes, 
Sha hi'e la, means red words, or red speech — speaking a foreign 
tongue. 

Fartly as a result of long association with the village tribes 
of the Missouri — Rees, Mandans, and Hidatsa— the Cheyennes 
have among them a strong infusion of foreign blood. A still 
greater mingling of alien blood comes from their warlike char- 
acter, so pronounced during many years of the last century, 
which resulted in the capture from their enemies of great numbers 
of children of both sexes who in due course were adopted into the 



THE CHEYENNES 3 

tribe, grew up as Cheyennes, and married and reared children. 
Old Cheyennes have told me that it is difficult to find any Chey- 
ennes without a strain of foreign blood, and as I think over my 
acquaintances I can recall hardly any whose ancestry can be traced 
far back wholly in the Cheyenne tribe. In another book I have 
given a list of twenty-eight tribes from which captives had been 
taken by the Cheyennes.^ 

When the Cheyennes first met the white people they were 
shy and timid, and endeavored to avoid the newcomers. Lewis 
and Clark speak of this, and old men among the Cheyennes say 
that they have always been told that in former times the chiefs 
advised that the white strangers be avoided. This may have 
some reference to the speech attributed to the Cheyenne Culture 
Hero, in which he prophesied a meeting with a people whose 
skins were white and whose ways were different, and predicted 
that misfortune to his people would follow their knowledge of 
these strangers.^ 

The late Ben Clark, in the manuscript prepared at the re- 
quest of General Sheridan, declared that the Cheyennes were 
called the Kite Indians, because perpetually on the move — al- 
ways seen at a distance and fleeing. 

Among the tribes of the plains the Cheyennes have had one 
ally on whose fidelity they could always depend. These were 
the Arapahoes, who for many generations have been associated 
with the Cheyennes on terms of the closest friendship, camping 
with them for long periods, uniting with them in their wars, or 
at other times being the medium through whom have come pro- 
posals for peace from hostile tribes. 

The tradition as to when the Arapahoes joined the Cheyennes 
is vague enough, and we know little about it, though much has 
been written on the subject. A milder and more easy-going peo- 
ple than the Cheyennes, they yet fought side by side with them 
in many a stubborn battle. There is a large infusion of Arapaho 
blood in the Cheyenne tribe, for many Cheyenne men married 
Arapaho women. On the other hand, it is my impression that 
comparatively few Cheyenne women have married Arapaho men. 

Historical knowledge of the Cheyennes begins with the ac- 
counts of Lewis and Clark, though many years earlier the French 

1 Indians of To-day, p. 72. (Chicago, 1900.) ^ /i>jd,, p. 174. 



4 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

trappers and traders had penetrated their country, which was on 
the plains near the Black Hills, and especially on the upper 
courses of certain streams which flow out of those hills. I think 
it very possible that long before this the Cheyennes had been 
met by the Verendryes, and that they may have been the tribe 
which the Verendrye Journal terms Ge7is de Uarc. Perhaps this 
can never be shown, but the name Gens du serpent, given to their 
enemies by the people of the Bow, suggests the Cheyenne term 
Shi shi' ni wi he tan iu, snake men, the name given by the Chey- 
ennes to the Comanches, who, the Cheyennes declare, occupied 
that country at the time when they reached the neighborhood 
of the Black Hills. The Cheyenne name for the tribes called 
Snakes by the whites is Sus'son i. 

Although the books constantly speak of the Cheyennes as at 
war with the Sioux, I do not find among them any tradition that 
they ever had serious quarrels with the plains people whom we 
know and speak of as Sioux. On the other hand, they were at 
bitter enmity with the northern Dakota or Assiniboines, and 
traditions of their wars with them run back a long way. Later 
enemies were the Kiowas, the Comanches, and the Crows, all of 
whom they gradually expelled from the country that they had 
invaded. The Cheyennes were long at war with the Pawnees and 
with the Shoshoni, and these hostilities endured up to the time 
when intertribal wars ceased. 

Early in the nineteenth century they were at peace with the 
Kiowas and Comanches, and in the Journal of Jacob Fowler for 
November, 1821, are found references to Kiowa Comanches, 
Kiowa Apaches, Cheyennes and "Snakes" (Comanches?) travel- 
ling together in more or less amity. Cheyenne tradition speaks of 
the Kiowas as peacable co-occupants with them of the Little Mis- 
souri country long after the Spaniards had come up there from the 
southwest to trade and before the Cheyennes had ever seen the 
French or English whites. The last great battle with the Kiowas, 
Comanches, and Apaches took place in 1838. Two years later a 
peace was made which has not since been broken. 

The Cheyennes were long at war with the Utes. At the time 
of the first settlement of western Colorado, after gold had been 
discovered, miners had come into the country, and villages and 
towns had been established on the flanks of the mountains in 



THE CHEYENNES 5 

that territory, war journeys by Cheyennes and Utes against each 
other were constantly taking place. The reports from officials 
of the Indian Service during the years 1862 to 1865 frequently 
complain of the trouble given to the settlers by the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes in their war journeys against the Utes and by the 
Utes when they went against the Cheyennes. 

Farther to the northward the Cheyennes had other enemies 
in the Crows, on whose territory they had begun to encroach after 
they had crossed the Missouri River and moved westward toward 
the mountains. Their battles with the Crows lasted at least 
seventy years, and perhaps longer, but were interrupted by a 
truce which perhaps endured from 1851 to 1854 or thereabouts. 

With the Blackfeet, still farther to the north, the Cheyennes 
did not often come in contact, though occasionally they met, and 
when they met they fought. 

The village tribes of the Missouri — Mandan, Arikara, and 
Hidatsa — were commonly on good terms with the Cheyennes. 
This is what we should expect from the fact that these were the 
first tribes that they met in friendship on the plains and since 
they lived with or near them for a long time. Still there were 
occasional quarrels even with these people. Maximilian tells of 
stories of battles with the Cheyennes that he heard from the 
Mandans, while the Cheyennes give accounts of fights that they 
had with the Arikaras. 

On their way west, perhaps long before they reached the 
country of the Red River, the Cheyennes met the Assiniboines 
— the Ho he. It is related that the two tribes came together when 
each was trying to surround a herd of buffalo. They quarrelled 
over this and came to blows. Old Assiniboines have told me that 
at this time the Cheyennes were armed only with clubs and with 
sharpened sticks, and this is precisely what the Cheyennes them- 
selves say. The Assiniboines, however, had guns and killed a 
number of the Cheyennes and scalped them. 

The sound of the guns and their dreadful power terrified the 
Cheyennes and they fled. As they had never before been at- 
tacked by enemies, the Cheyennes did not know what to make 
of the situation, but after a time one of them stood up and ha- 
rangued the people and said: "Now we have fought with these 
people; they attacked us and have killed some of us. After this 



6 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

let us fight with all people we meet, and we shall become great 
men." So they began to fight all tribes wherever they met them 
and it did make great men of them. They came to be great 
warriors and took many prisoners. 

However, there is a tradition of a time when the Cheyennes 
and their kindred, the Suh'tai, lived in the far northeast — long 
before the battles with the Ho he — when those two tribes fought 
with one another. During their last great fight they discovered 
that they spoke a similar language and that they were related, 
and then made a peace which was never broken. 

Not a few traditions are handed down of the battles of the 
Cheyennes and the Ho he, in which the Cheyennes were always 
defeated. Some Cheyenne authorities include the Ojibwa among 
the Ho he. It was the practise of the Ho he to come at night to 
attack the Cheyenne camps. They carried horns made of the 
hollow stems of some plant, with which they signalled to each 
other, making a call like that of the buffalo in spring, so that, if 
the Cheyennes heard them approaching, they might suppose 
buffalo were coming and thus not be on the lookout for the enemy. 
They slew many Cheyennes. 

An oft-told story explains how a dog saved a family from death 
by the Ho he. 

In those days a man, his wife, and well-grown son were camped 
apart from the tribe. They had a dog, whose puppies were in 
the lodge. One night the mother dog went out to look for food 
for the puppies, and returning to them after a time began to cry 
over them and lick them. The man saw what she was doing and 
wondered. He spoke to the dog and said: "Why do you do this? 
If you know that something bad is going to happen, tell me what 
it is. We do not wish to die. If we are in danger, help us, and 
we will save your puppies. Try in some way to help us." 

After he had spoken thus to the dog, she went out of the 
lodge and was gone for some time, and then came back and 
stood in the lodge looking toward the door. The man's wife 
told him to take up the puppies. He put them in his robe on his 
back, and they all made ready to go out, but first the man made 
up a large fire in the lodge, so that any one who saw it would 
suppose the people were still there. 

The dog left the lodge and they followed her, and she led them 



THE CHEYENNES 7 

down to the river and straight across. After a time they heard 
guns sounding all around their camp, and they knew that the 
Ho he were attacking the lodge with the fire burning in it. They 
went on to another camp where Cheyennes were living and told 
them that the Ho he had attacked their lodge, so the Cheyennes 
moved away and all escaped. The story of how the dog saved 
her master has been told in the camp since that time. 

For a long time the Cheyennes possessed no arms that they 
could use in fighting the Ho he. They talk much about those 
dreadful days, and tell of the terror that they felt of these en- 
emies, of the triumph when on rare occasions and through some 
accident they succeeded in killing one, of the care with which 
their camping-places were chosen to avoid attack, and of how 
finally, through the ready wit of an old woman, they succeeded 
in obtaining a few guns. 

In those days, long before they had horses, they travelled 
from place to place, packing some of their property on dogs and 
carrying the rest on their backs. Once the people were camped 
in their earth lodges and were chasing buffalo on foot. They 
had hunted for three or four days and now had abundant meat. 
They left this camp and moved a short distance down the stream. 
One old woman, however, who was busy making grease, remained 
at the old camp. She said: "I shall stay here for a time, because I 
wish to finish pounding up my bones, and boiling them, and 
skimming off the grease." 

The night was dark and the old woman was alone in the camp. 
She was still boiling her bones and skimming the grease from the 
pot. She had made a torch and tied it to a stick and thrust the 
stick down her back, between her dress and her body, so that 
the torch stood above her head, and threw light on the pot. She 
was blowing the grease off the water when a person entered the 
lodge and sat down by the head of her bed. She did not look 
up, but kept blowing the grease from the water. Then, one 
after another, walked into the lodge about fifty great, tall Assini- 
boines. 

There was plenty of food hanging in the lodge, and at one 
side was some pounded meat. The Assiniboines said to each 
other: "We will get something to eat first, and then we will kill 
her." They made signs to her that they were hungry, and to 



8 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

each one she gave some pounded meat, and then began to roast 
some fresh meat. 

The old woman was badly frightened. She kept saying to 
herself: "They will surely kill me. What can I do to save my- 
self ? " Hanging up in the lodge was a great sheet of back fat — 
tallow — and the old woman took it down to roast it so that the 
visitors might eat it with their meat. She put it on a stick and 
hung it over the fire until it had begun to cook and the hot grease 
was dropping from it. Then, lifting it as if to turn it, she took it 
from the stick and gave it a mighty swing around her head, 
throwing the hot fat in the faces of the Assiniboines sitting around 
the circle, and all jumped back burned. Then she rushed out of 
the lodge. 

Not far in front of the lodge was a high cut bank above the 
river, with rocks below. The Assiniboines, furious with their 
burns, rushed after the old woman, following the torch that she 
carried over her head. She ran fast toward the bank and when 
close to it threw her torch ahead of her and turned sharp to one 
side, running along the edge of the bank. The Assiniboines fol- 
lowed the blazing light, and all ran over the bank and, falling on 
the rocks below, were hurt or killed. The old woman hurried 
away after the Cheyenne camp and overtook it. She told of the 
Assiniboines who had come to her lodge, and of what she had 
done, saying: "I could hear them fall over the cliff; I think all 
fell over." The next morning the men returned to the old camp, 
and here under the bank they found the fifty Ho he, some of them 
dead, some with broken backs, some with broken legs, and some 
with broken arms, creeping about. They killed them all and se- 
cured their guns. 

The Cheyennes were driven by the Assiniboines in a south- 
westerly direction until they reached the Missouri River, not far 
from where Fort Pierre now is. Here for a long time they re- 
mained, living with the Mandans and the Arikaras in earth lodges, 
raising their crops, and making journeys away from the village to 
secure game or to catch fish; to gather the eggs and young of 
water-birds in summer, or to collect skunks in the autumn when 
they were fat. 

Later they wandered out on the plains after buffalo. 



II 

THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 

After the question of providing subsistence for himself and 
his family, the main thing that occupied the mind of the Cheyenne 
was the protection of his people from the attacks of enemies and 
the effort to reduce the power of those enemies by attacks on them. 

The fighting spirit was encouraged. In no way could a young 
man gain so much credit as by the exhibition of courage. Boys 
and youths were trained to feel that the most important thing in 
life was to be brave; that death was not a thing to be avoided; that, 
in fact, it was better for a man to be killed while in his full vigor 
rather than to wait until his prime was past, his powers were fail- 
ing, and he could no longer achieve those feats which to all seemed 
so desirable. When a man was old he could no longer get about 
easily; the labors of the hunt and of the war-path were too much 
for him; he was pushed aside by the more active and vigorous. 
He lost his teeth; he could not enjoy his food; he sat on the cold 
side of the lodge; life seemed to hold for him nothing good. How 
much better, therefore, to struggle and fight, to be brave and ac- 
complish great things, to receive the respect and applause of every- 
one in the camp, and finally to die gloriously at the hands of the 
enemy ! 

Among the Cheyennes, as among other plains tribes, this feel- 
ing was very strong. They fought not only to gain the approval 
of their tribesfellows but for pure enjoyment of the struggle — real 
gaudium certaminis. The spirit of the camp was such that young 
men going into battle thought of it as the beginning of a good time 
that they were to have. To them fighting was a real joy. Per- 
haps they regarded their fights somewhat as the big game hunter 
of modern times regards his pursuit of dangerous game. The per- 
sonal risk must have added enormously to the excitement and 
enjoyment of the contest. 

9 



10 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The chapters in this book are devoted chiefly to conflicts be- 
tween considerable bodies of men, but it must be remembered that 
the war-paths of the plains Indians were carried on in a great va- 
riety of ways. Men might go off with a special purpose, one, two or 
three together, or a great war party of hundreds might go; they 
journeyed on foot or on horseback, according to circumstances. 

It will be readily conceived that among people who possessed 
ideals such as these there would be many exciting adventures. 
From a mass of individual stories and accounts of small war parties 
I have chosen three which will perhaps give some notion of the 
ways of warriors. 

The Death of Mouse's Road 

In 1837, the year before the great fight with the Kiowas and 
Comanches, the Cheyennes were camped on the South Platte 
River. A war party of fourteen started south on foot to take 
horses from the Kiowas and Comanches. Stone Forehead and 
Pushing Ahead were the two who carried the pipes ' — the leaders. 

They found the camp of the enemy at the head of what the 
Cheyennes called Big Sand Creek, which runs into the Red 
River (of Texas). That night the Chej^ennes went into the 
camp in couples. Stone Forehead was with a man named Angry. 
It was very dark. Close behind a lodge which they passed stood 
a pole with a shield hanging to it. Angry untied the shield from 
the pole and put it on his back, and they went on, looking for 
horses. They came to a bunch of fifty or sixty, and went around 
them and drove them a little way, and each caught a gentle horse, 
mounted it, and drove off the herd. 

When they reached the place where it had been agreed that 
they should meet, they found the others of the party already there, 
excepting only six men. Stone Forehead said: "We cannot wait 
here; we must start." They did so. Stone Forehead and Push- 
ing Ahead went behind, where it is the custom for the leaders to 
travel, while the others went ahead. They drove their bunches 
along side by side, but two or three hundred yards apart. When 
day came they looked carefully at their horses so that they should 
know them again, and then they bunched the horses into a single 

1 Carrying the pipe. The leader or leaders of a war party carried each a 
pipe, which on certain occasions was ceremonially smoked. 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 11 

herd. The way was so rough that they drove very slowly, and 
Pushing Ahead, who knew the country, kept saying: "We are 
going so slowly that they will surely overtake us." 

It was a little past the middle of the day when they saw the 
Kiowas and Comanches coming. There were only a few of them 
— not over thirty. Then the Cheyennes began to catch the swift- 
est horses, so that they could get about quickly. Pushing Ahead 
was a brave man. He said: "We must not let them take our 
horses. I do not think there are many of them." The Chey- 
ennes mounted the fast horses and bunched up the herd, and, 
sending two young men ahead to ride one on each side so as to 
hold the horses together, they stopped. One of the Cheyennes 
got ofT his horse and fired at a Comanche, and shot his horse 
through the body. The Comanche rode back, and soon his horse 
began to stagger, and the Comanche left it and mounted behind 
one of his fellows. Then the Cheyennes made a charge on the 
Kiowas and Comanches, and they turned about and went back. 

Of the other six men two, Little Wolf and his partner. Walk- 
ing Coyote, were alone. They were on the head of the Washita, 
in level country. They had taken only a few horses. They saw a 
big party of Kiowas and Comanches coming in two bands. There 
was a ravine near them, and Little Wolf said: "These horses are 
tired out. We cannot drive them much farther; the enemy will 
soon overtake us. Let us dismount and hide in this ravine." 
They ran down the ravine and hid in a little hollow, and lay 
there. If the Kiowas had looked for them they would have 
found them, but just then they saw the four other Cheyennes 
far off, and turned to rush to them. Little Wolf and Walking 
Coyote stayed there till night, and then set off for home on foot. 

When the Kiowas and Comanches charged Mouse's Road and 
his three companions, the Cheyennes did not run; they rode up 
on a little hill and got off their horses and began to kill them. 
They had already left behind the horses they had taken and 
had only those that they were riding. Now, as the Kiowas and 
Comanches came up, the Cheyennes were seen to be taking off 
their leggings so that they could run fast and easily. The enemy 
charged them, and the Cheyennes fought bravely, though they had 
but few arrows, for they had been out a long time. In a little 
while the enemy had killed three of the Cheyennes. 



12 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Early in the fight Mouse's Road's bow was broken in two by 
a ball, and he threw it away. A Comanche chief, seeing him thus 
disarmed, charged up to kill him with his lance, but Mouse's 
Road avoided the blow, caught hold of the Comanche, pulled him 
from his horse, and killed him with his knife. Mouse's Road 
was still un wounded. He let the Comanche's horse go, and 
signed to the Kiowas: "Come on." 

There was a man named Lone Wolf, a chief, and a brave man, 
who had been behind the other Kiowas. He called out: "I have 
just come and I wish you all to look at me. I intend to kill that 
man." He said to a Mexican captive: "Do you ride close behind 
me." The two charged upon Mouse's Road, and the Mexican 
rode straight at him, but Mouse's Road, though on foot, did not 
run away; he ran to meet the Mexican and, springing at him, 
seized him, pulled him from his horse, and plunged his knife 
into him several times. While he was doing this Lone Wolf dis- 
mounted and rushed up to help the Mexican. Mouse's Road 
dropped the dead Mexican and rushed at Lone Wolf, who ran at 
him with his lance held in both hands above his head, so as to 
deal a blow of great force. As he thrust with the lance Mouse's 
Road stooped and ran under the lance, caught Lone Wolf by the 
left shoulder, and struck him a terrible blow with his knife in the 
hip. Lone Wolf turned to run and Mouse's Road caught him by 
his hair ornament and with all his force thrust at his back. The 
knife struck one of the silver hair plates and broke in two, leaving 
about four inches of the blade on the handle. Lone Wolf screamed 
for help to his people, but no one came, and Mouse's Road con- 
tinued to stab and hack and cut him with the stump of the knife 
until Lone Wolf fell to the ground, pretending to be dead. 

Now came a Comanche chief riding a fine horse, and armed 
with a lance and bow and arrows. Mouse's Road took up the 
lance Lone Wolf had dropped, and ran to meet the Comanche. 
He parried the Comanche's lance thrust and drove his own lance 
into the Comanche and lifted him high out of the saddle, and 
the Comanche died. 

Now the Kiowas and Comanches saw something that they 
never had seen before — a man who seemed swifter than a horse, 
more active than a panther, as strong as a bear, and one against 
whom weapons seemed useless. There were more than a hundred 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 13 

of the Kiowas and Comanches, and onlj'^ one Cheyenne on foot, 
without arms, but the Kiowas and Comanches began to run 
away. Others, braver, made signs to Mouse's Road, who had 
now mounted the Comanche's horse: "Hold on! wait, wait. 
Take that horse that you have. We will give you a saddle. Go 
on home to your village and tell your people what has hap- 
pened." 

"No," signed Mouse's Road, "I will not go home; my brothers 
have all been killed and if I were to go home I should be crying 
all the time — mourning for these men. You must kill me." 

When he said this all the Kiowas started to run, and Mouse's 
Road charged them. Behind the main body of the enemy were 
two Kiowas who had just come up. Both had guns, and when 
they saw Mouse's Road coming they got off their horses and 
sat down and waited until he was close to them, and then both 
fired. One of the balls broke his thigh, and he fell from his horse. 
Yet still he sat up to defend himself with his lance, and the Kio- 
was and Comanches, though they surrounded him, dared not go 
near him. One crept up from behind and shot him in the back, 
and he fell over. Then all the Kiowas and Comanches rushed 
on him and cut off his head, and when they had done that Mouse's 
Road raised himself and sat upright. 

The Kiowas and Comanches jumped on their horses in fright, 
and fled to their village and told the people they had killed a 
medicine man and he had come to life again, and was coming to 
attack them. And, the women swiftly packing up a few of their 
things, the whole camp moved away, leaving many of their lodges 
standing. 

This is the story told by the Kiowas. The Cheyennes have 
no account of it, for all the Cheyennes were killed. Lone Wolf 
lived for a long time, scarred and crippled from the cutting he 
had received. He died not long ago. The Kiowas and Comanches 
said that Mouse's Road was the bravest man they ever saw or 
heard of. 

Long Chin's Strategy 

In 1855 runners were sent out from Bent's New Fort on the 
Arkansas River to call in the different tribes to receive their 
annuity goods there. The issue was to be made in the late summer, 



14 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

for the goods were transported by wagon, and it took ox-trains 
sixty or seventy days to make the journey from Kansas City 
landing to Bent's New Fort. At this time, the Cheyennes, Arap- 
ahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches were all under one 
Indian agent. 

When these different tribes got together, camping near the 
fort, it was a happy and social time. In all the villages drum- 
ming, singing, dancing, visiting, and the giving of presents among 
the people went on night and day. Among the Cheyennes the 
soldier societies — Elk Horn Scrapers, Bow Strings, Kit Foxes, 
Red Shields, and Dog Soldiers — took turns having dances in the 
fort, and the soldier societies of the other tribes did the same. 
At the fort it was the custom on these occasions to cook food and 
feast the Indians. They also gave them presents of paints, 
knives, shirts, looking-glasses, and handkerchiefs. 

The tribes were camped about the fort for some time, and 
after the goods had been issued the Arapahoes moved down the 
river, the Comanches, with half the Kiowas and the Apaches, 
moved south to their country, and the remainder of the Kiowas 
moved north to the Smoky Hill River. Before this about thirty 
young men of the Elk Horn Scrapers soldier band had set out 
on the war-path to look for Pawnees, who would be found, they 
were told, somewhere on the Smoky Hill River, whither the whole 
Cheyenne tribe was going to renew the medicine arrows. 

The Cheyennes and Kiowas moved north slowly, and at length 
camped on the Smoky Hill River, where Black Butte Creek runs 
into it. The Cheyennes were camped on the north side of the 
river, in a great circle which opened to the east, while the Kiowas 
camped by themselves on the south side of the river. After 
reaching this place the two tribes held a council, and agreed that 
after the arrows had been renewed they would start north on the 
war-path to look for the Pawnees. 

About the second night after they had reached this camp a 
war party of Pawnees came into it and took all the horses that 
were on Black Butte Creek. From there the trails led north. 
The Cheyennes at once sent word to the Kiowas that their horses 
had been taken. Sitting Bear, Light Hair, and Eagle Tail were 
then the Kiowa war chiefs. They sent a message to the Chey- 
ennes asking them to get together on the trail, and to wait there 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 15 

for them, and not to permit anyone to go ahead of the main party. 
The Cheyennes waited for the Kiowas where the trail was plainest, 
and when the Kiowa chiefs rode up, Eagle Tail said to the Chey- 
ennes: "Leave this matter of trailing to us. As you people know, 
we have had more horses taken from us than any other tribe. 
We are accustomed to following these trails, and are far better 
able to do it than any other people." The Cheyennes replied 
that they were glad to have the Kiowas feel interested in the 
matter, and they would leave everything to them. The day was 
clear and bright. The Kiowa chiefs took the trail and followed 
it fast. Toward sundown it began to get cloudy, and as the sun 
set it began to rain and grow foggy. The trail seemed to go in 
the direction of Beaver Creek, 

At dark the Kiowas said to the Cheyennes : " Now we should all 
stop here for the night on this trail, and in the morning we will 
take it up again." The Kiowas thrust into the ground a stick 
pointing in the direction the trail was going. The Dog Soldiers 
got off their horses a little to one side of where the main party of 
the pursuers had stopped. 

When Long Chin and Tall Bull were talking over this among 
themselves, they said that they did not like the way in which the 
Kiowas were following the trail. The Dog Soldiers all came to- 
gether in a little group, and had a council among themselves. 
It was still raining and very foggy. 

Long Chin was an old warrior. He had been In many fights 
and had had much experience. He said to the Dog Soldiers: 
"Saddle up now, and during the night we will go on to Beaver 
Creek, and will follow that stream down, and if the Pawnees 
went that way we shall certainly strike their trail." They fol- 
lowed his advice and about sixty Cheyennes started on. Long 
Chin, Tall Bull, and Good Bear took the lead to go toward Beaver 
Creek. These men knew the country well, and even though it 
was dark and raining they had no trouble in going to the stream, 
which they reached very early in the morning. After the sun 
had risen the weather grew clear, and following down the stream 
they soon struck the trail of the Pawnees. The Kiowas and the 
Cheyennes who had been left behind did not start until morn- 
ing, and then followed the trail, but when they reached Beaver 
Creek and saw that Long Chin and his party were before them 



16 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

they went on slowly, for It was useless to try to overtake those 
who were in advance. 

The first discovery made by Long Chin was a buffalo car- 
cass which the Pawnees had killed not long before, and from which 
they had taken the best parts of the meat. 

"Ha ha," said Long Chin, "now we shall catch them. Some- 
where on this creek they will stop to cook food and eat, and we 
shall overtake them." The Dog Soldiers began to go faster. 
Old Whirlwind was with this party. All his horses had been taken 
by the Pawnees, but from a Kiowa friend he had borrowed a good 
horse, which his friend had told him was fast. 

Long Chin was really the head of this party, most of whom, 
but not all, were Dog Soldiers. He was a half-brother of Tall 
Bull. Long Chin now rode some distance ahead of the party to 
look about and try to discover the Pawnees. At length he rode 
up on a hill, and as he peeped over it he saw a smoke, and he 
made signs to his party that they should get ready. They got 
off their ponies and began to put bridles on the war horses that 
they were leading; to uncover their shields, and such of the Dog 
Soldiers as had dog ropes began to prepare them. 

Presently Long Chin rode back and told the young men that 
the Pawnees were a long waj^ off, and that it was too far to charge 
on them from that place. They must remember that the Paw- 
nees had a number of fast horses, and if they were given time to 
get ready they would mount and escape. "The horses," he went 
on, "are all about where the smoke rises from, and as I looked 
I saw one or two men walking about among the herds. These 
people are at the mouth of Cherry Brush Creek, and the best 
thing for us to do is to ride close together, and to go down into 
the bed of Beaver Creek and get as close as we can before we make 
a charge. If we can take the Pawnees by surprise, they will not 
have time to get on their fast horses. One thing you may remem- 
ber, my young men: if a Pawnee is armed only with a bow and 
arrows, do not fear him. Last night their bows and arrows got 
wet and the bowstrings will stretch and break when they pull 
on them. Now let us go." 

They went down into the stream bed, as Long Chin had 
ordered, and when they had come close enough Long Chin crept 
up and looked again. The Pawnees were roasting meat all around 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 17 

the fire. Some were eating and some were lying down. Long 
Chin motioned for his young men to charge. The Pawnees were 
taken completely by surprise. Some of them jumped up and 
started to run without their bows, but one Pawnee cried out some- 
thing, and then they all came to their senses, and ran back for 
their bows and quivers. One Pawnee was on foot, herding the 
horses. He started to run back to his party, but was cut off. 
Old Whirlwind, on the Kiowa horse, found that his friend had 
told him true. The horse proved to be fast and ran ahead of 
all the others, and Whirlwind counted the first coup.^ When 
he had done this, he ran on toward the horses, so that the Paw- 
nees could not mount any of them. The Pawnees ran down into 
the creek bottom. One Pawnee fought bravely. He remained 
behind the others, trying to hold back the Cheyennes, so that 
his young men might get away, and he wounded Good Bear and 
Picket with arrows. The Pawnees did not have a single gun 
among them. All carried bows and arrows. Before sundown all 
had been killed. 

When the Cheyennes went back to the Pawnee camp-fire and 
looked about it they found there eleven buffalo robes which the 
Pawnees had spread out on the ground to dry, but when they 
counted the Pawnees that had been killed there were only ten, 
so they were sure that one of them had hidden in the brush and 
had escaped. 

A few years ago there was living in the Pawnee tribe a man 
who said that his father was the only one who escaped in this 
fight. The father was in the bushes when the Cheyennes made 
their charge, and he hid there. After it grew dark he went down 
the way the Pawnees had retreated and found a blanket that 
some one had lost, and this he wore back to his home. 

The Cheyennes used to call this fight " Long Chin's victory on 
Cherry Brush Creek," for Long Chin had planned everything 
that was done. 

That night as they were returning Long Chin's party met 
the Kiowas and the main part of the Cheyennes. Long Chin 

^ To count a coup was to "touch the enemy with something held in the 
hand, with the bare hand, or with any part of the body." "Coup and Scalp 
Among the Plains Indians," Aynerican Anthropologist, New Series, vol. XII, p. 
297, April-June, 1910. 



18 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

presented the Pawnee scalps to the Kiowas, so that they might 
dance over them. 

It was said that Eagle Tail and the other Kiowa chiefs felt 
ashamed of themselves, because, after they had boasted to the 
Cheyennes that they would overtake the Pawnees, Long Chin 
had outgeneralled them. 

When this party returned to the village something took place 
that is known to have happened only once before. The thirty 
Elk Horn Scrapers who had started out from Bent's Fort to look 
for Pawnees had killed two Pawnees on the Solomon River, and 
were coming back to the village on the Smoky Hill River. Early 
in the morning the leader of this party with the two Pawnee 
scalps sat on his horse ready to run into the circle of the village 
from the southeast side, and Long Chin's party, which had just 
arrived with their many scalps, sat on their horses ready to run 
into the village from the northeast side, and to go about the 
circle. Neither of the two parties knew that the other was there, 
and the two ran into the circle at the same time, shooting off their 
guns. Some of Long Chin's party mistook some of the Elk Horn 
Scrapers for members of their own party, and mingled with them 
before they found out their mistake. This did no harm as both 
parties had scalps, and both marched into the centre of the village. 

The scalp dance that they had after these victories was one 
of the biggest ever known. After it was over the Kiowas moved 
away to their country south of the Arkansas River, and the Chey- 
ennes moved away in bands to good hunting grounds, as it was 
now near the fall of the year. 

How Six Feathers Was Named 

Once, long ago, a big village of Arapahoes and a few Chey- 
ennes were camped on Cherry Creek, in Colorado. A large war 
party, most of them Arapahoes with some Cheyennes, left the 
camp to go against the Utes to take horses from them. When 
they had come near the Ute camp, they left their robes and other 
things in a place nearbj^ and then the men entered the camp and 
began to take horses. The Utes discovered them, and they were 
obliged to run. 

When the Utes chased them the Arapahoes and Cheyennes 
scattered on the way back to where they had left their things. 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 19 

A few shots were fired. The Utes still followed them. When 
they had come to the place where they had left their things, the 
Arapahoes and the Cheyennes stopped and they had a fight. 
Then the Utes left tnem and went back to their camp, and the 
Arapahoes and Cheyennes went on toward home. 

An Arapaho named Crane had taken a few horses and had 
mounted a big black one, but the Utes had followed him so closely 
that he was forced to abandon all the horses except the one he 
was riding. He was separated from the rest and driven off to 
one side. When the Arapahoes and Cheyennes started back 
Crane was not with them; he had not appeared. 

That night, after Crane had ridden away from the Utes who 
had followed him, while he was still riding fast, his horse ran over 
a smooth rock and fell with him and broke his leg. He bound up 
his leg and mounted his horse again, and travelled all that night 
and all the next day until toward evening. Now his leg began 
to swell and became so painful that he could no longer ride. He 
looked up and down the stream for a good hiding-place, and at 
last he found one where the rocks projected over the bank to form 
a sort of cave, and a pine tree had fallen over against the mouth 
of it so as partly to hide it. He rode up to the mouth of the 
cave, and almost fell off his horse, for he was nearly helpless. 
But he held the animal by the bridle, and raising himself to his 
knees he shot it in the head. It was late in the fall, after the leaves 
had fallen, and the weather had begun to get cool. He cut the 
flesh of his horse into flakes and hung them upon the limbs of 
the tree to dry. 

After he had been there one moon and a half, one day as he 
sat looking over the valley a speckled eagle came and alighted 
in the pine tree just above him. Crane thought to himself: 
"This is a pretty bird; I believe I will shoot it." He reached out 
his hand for his gun, but as he did so he began to think, and 
presently he said to himself: "No, I will not shoot it. This may 
be some medicine bird." He sat there, and the eagle sat on the 
limb turning its head, looking this way and that and sometimes 
looking down at him, and at last the eagle bent down its head 
and spoke and said to him: "You shall get back safely to your 
home, and when you get there your name shall be Six Feathers." 
After it had said that the eagle flew away. 



20 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

It was not long after this that the eagle came again and 
alighted on the pine tree, and after a little time it again spoke 
to him and said: "Friend, your name is now Eagle Head." Then 
after a little while the eagle said: "Cover yom* head now with 
your robe and I will doctor your leg." Crane covered his head 
as he had been told, and presently he could feel the eagle's wings 
touching his leg, but he could not see what the eagle did. 

Crane remained in this place five months. He had plenty of 
clothing and could keep warm. He was very careful of his food, 
and each day ate only a little bit. In the fifth month he could 
hop down to the creek. Before that he had got his water from 
the snow. When he got down to the stream he cut himself two 
crutches, and winding the heads with horse-hide that he had 
dressed, he practised until he could walk well with the crutches. 
He could now bear a little weight on his leg, but feared to rest too 
much on it lest he should break it again. 

He now started out to find the camp of his people. Three 
times on his way he killed a buffalo. The first time he killed he 
stopped and rested three nights. When he killed the second 
buffalo he stopped two nights and rested. The next one was 
killed close to the South Platte River, near its head. He lay there 
ten days. 

It was now spring and the trees were beginning to bud. Crane 
cut out the meat of the buffalo and dried it, and he stretched the 
hide over a great stump and made a bull-boat. He waited here 
until the hide had dried. By this time all his people in the camp 
were mourning for him, and had cut off their hair, for they thought 
him dead. 

After the boat was dried and stretched over the willows 
Crane put his meat in the boat and got in himself, and with a 
stick for a paddle he started to float down the stream. When- 
ever he wished to stop for the night or rest he dragged his boat 
out on the shore. 

At this time the people were camped on the Cache la Poudre 
River. One morning, very early, the young men were all out 
for their horses, when one of them heard some one singing. He 
looked up the stream and saw Six Feathers come floating down, 
singing as he came along. When he had reached the camp an old 
man went about through the village, calling out that they must 



THE WAYS OF WARRIORS 21 

put up a separate lodge, for Six Feathers had returned. The 
eagle had told Six Feathers to announce his name as soon as he 
reached the camp, and he did so. A lodge was put up as directed, 
and when Six Feathers's boat had come opposite to it he landed 
and hobbled up to it, and there he told his story. He told it 
all and then said to his young brother: "An eagle took pity on 
me and helped me, and after you have counted your first coup 
your name shall be Eagle Head." 

Six Feathers lived to be a great man among his people, and 
at last he became a great chief. He always used to say that if 
he had become frightened and lost his senses he never could have 
saved himself, but he kept his wits about him all the time. 

Six Feathers lived for a long time with the tribe, but at last 
a horse fell with him and killed him. 



Ill 

A CROW BATTLE 

With the Crows the Cheyennes were at war for many years. 
How many it is impossible to say, but traditions tell us of fights 
which took place in the very first years of the last century. 

As nearly as may be gathered from the stories, the Cheyennes 
in the year 1801 attacked and captured a Crow village of thirty 
lodges. Lewis and Clark in 1804 saw at the Arikara village 
some Cheyennes who had with them Crow prisoners.^ They 
record that the Cheyennes were then at war with the Crows. 

About 1820 an important battle took place between the Chey- 
ennes and Crows of which vivid tradition still remains. It was 
the greatest of many encounters, and was the second remembered 
move of the medicine arrows against a hostile tribe. 

The year before this event — probably in 1819 — another, 
quite as well remembered, took place. A party of thirty-two 
Cheyennes, most of them Crooked Lance soldiers, were travelling 
on the war-path through the northern country. While moving 
among the mountains they met a Crow scout who was in advance 
of the Crow camp. The Cheyennes overtook the scout and killed 
him, but had hardly done so when a great force of Crows appeared 
and charged them. The Cheyennes retreated to the top of a hill, 
where, surrounded, they fought for a long time. Not far off 
were three different camps of Crows. These were sent for and 
camped all about the hill, so that the Cheyennes could not get 
away. 

The story of what followed comes from the Crows, since none 
of the Cheyennes with the party survived. The Crows declare 
that one of their men had crept close to the Cheyennes and was 

1 Lewis and Clark, vol. I, p. 189. (New York, 1904.) 
22 



A CROW BATTLE 23 

shooting at them through a cleft in the rock and had killed sev- 
eral. One of the Cheyennes had a gun and the others pointed 
out to him the situation of the Crow. The Cheyenne lay down 
and aimed at the cleft and when the Crow raised his head to shoot 
the Cheyenne fired, hitting him in the forehead and killing him. 
The Crow sprang forward and his body lay head downward, half 
over the rock. Then the Cheyenne sang a song and held up his 
gun toward the sun, and struck the butt on the ground, and fired 
and killed a Crow. Four times he did this and killed four Crows. 
These were his last shots. The Crows wished to know who this 
man was, and afterward asked the Cheyennes, and sang for them 
the Cheyenne's song. When they heard the song his people 
knew who the man was, for the song belonged to One-Eyed 
Antelope. 

The Cheyennes fought the first day and night and the next 
day, but by the evening of the second day they had run out of 
ammunition and arrows. Wlien they had nothing more to shoot 
with — soon after One-Eyed Antelope had fired his last shot — 
they threw away their bows, drew their knives, and made a charge 
on the Crows, and in hand-to-hand fighting all were killed. The 
Crows say that the Cheyennes killed twenty-five of their people, 
but some Crows say that many more than that were killed. The 
only Cheyennes who escaped were two scouts who had been sent 
out before the Crows were encountered, and who watched the 
entire fight from a distance. They brought to the Cheyenne 
camps the news of what had happened. 

The stream near which this fight occurred is commonly called 
Crow Standing Creek by the Crows, because, it is said, a Chey- 
enne during the fight acted like a crow (bird), cawing and walking 
about outside of the breastworks. On the other hand, some of 
the Cheyennes of the present day say that the stream is called 
Crow Standing Off Creek, i. e., Where They Stood Off the Crows 
(Indians). The map name to-day is Prairie Dog Creek, and the 
scene of the killing could not have been very distant from where 
the Fetterman command was annihilated nearly fifty years later. 

To revenge this injury the Cheyennes the following year 
moved toward the Crow country and camped on Powder River. 
They attacked the Crow camp and won a great victory. The 
story is told in two ways. In one version Cheyennes and Sioux 



24 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

were together/ the Cheyenne camp being on one side of Powder 
River and the Sioux camp on the other side, about a mile away. 
The Crows had sent out scouts to locate the camp of the enemy, 
and these scouts finding the camps near sundown rode into the 
river-bed to hide. After dark they left their hiding-place and 
rode in between the two camps, where they came upon a Cheyenne 
passing from one camp to the other and shot him. At the news 
of the attack men rushed out to their horses, the best of which 
were tied close to the lodges, and rode out to look for the Crows. 
It was dark and nothing could be seen, but the Cheyennes and 
Sioux heard the Crows whipping their horses as they hurried to 
escape, and following the sounds overtook and killed two Crows, 
the others getting away in safety. 

A very large war party now left the Crow camp to attack the 
Cheyennes and Sioux, while at the same time the Cheyennes and 
Sioux left their camp to attack that of the Crows. Thus the 
camps were left almost unprotected. The two hostile war parties 
passed each other, the Crows going on toward the Cheyenne and 
Sioux camps while the men from those camps pushed forward 
toward that of the Crows. For some unexplained reason the 
Crow party missed their way and failed to find the Cheyenne and 
Sioux camps, but the Cheyennes and Sioux were more successful. 

In the other version nothing is said about the presence of 
the Sioux, but it is declared that the Cheyennes had moved with 
the medicine arrows against the Crows. This version relates 
that the whole Cheyenne camp was present at the Crow fight, 
as was always the case when the arrows were moved. 

The Crows knew that the Cheyenne camp was near and sent 
out a large war party to attack it. A Crow who was late in 
starting was following up the trail of his war party, trying to 
overtake them. As he was moving along he was seen by a Chey- 
enne scout. Whistling Elk, who lay in wait for him and struck 

* The Sioux were probably present, for the winter-counts in the Fourth 
Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology mention the affair, under date "Winter of 
1820-1," which probably means late summer or fall, 1820. The account 
says a village of one hundred lodges of Crows was captured. Larocque, in 
1805, says the Crows were divided into three bands and had three hundred 
lodges all told. The winter-count thus suggests the capture by the Chey- 
ennes and Sioux of one-third of the whole Crow tribe. Larocque's Journal, 
1805. 



A CROW BATTLE 25 

him twice on the head with a hatchet and knocked him down. 
Supposing his enemy dead, Whistling Elk left him and returned 
to his party. ^ 

The Crow was only stunned, and when he recovered his senses 
started to return to his own camp. As he was going on he heard 
the sound of the main party of enemies coming — the trampling 
of the feet of many horses, which sounded like buffalo moving. 
As swiftly as possible he hurried to his village, reached there in 
the night, and at once seeking out the chiefs said: "While I was 
following our party to war I met a small number of enemies and 
escaped from them, and as I was returning here I heard the 
sound of a great w^ar party coming. We ought to go away from 
here to-night." 

A little while before this man had stolen the wife of another 
Crow, and after the Crow chiefs had listened to what he had to 
say they did not believe his story. They said to one another: 
"He must have overtaken our people and the man whose wife 
he stole has beaten him with a quirt. No Cheyenne did that. 
If a Cheyenne had attacked him he would have killed him. There 
are no Cheyennes near here. If there had been, our war party 
would have killed them." 

"Very well," said the man. "You must do what you think is 
right. I have told you what is true." 

He left the chiefs and went to the lodges of all his relations 
and told them what had befallen him, and said: "We must go 
away from here to-night. Pack your things quickly. Let us go 
and try to save ourselves. Many of the enemy are coming. We 
shall surely be attacked." 

His relations believed him, packed their possessions, mounted 
and left the camp, but before they had gone far they stopped, for 
they felt uncertain what they ought to do. Some of them said: 
"Let us go back. It is too cold out here, and that man may be 
lying." So some of them set out to return to their camp. 

It was still night when the Cheyennes came to the camp and 
surrounded it, and just at daylight they made the attack. It 
was a camp of about one hundred lodges, and in it there were no 
fighting men, only middle-aged and old men, so there was not 

1 Whistling Elk was the father of Spotted Wolf, who died in 1896, aged 
Beventy-six years. 



26 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

much fighting, but everyone in the camp was killed or captured. 
Much property was taken and many women and children. The 
Cheyennes did not want the old women, but instead of killing 
them they told them to go away and join their own people. 
With the Cheyennes were many women, who took part in the fight 
and afterward secured much plunder. An old Crow woman 
went to a Cheyenne woman^ who had captured a little Crow girl, 
a relation of the old woman, and said to the Cheyenne woman: 
"My eyes are not good and unless I have some one to lead me I 
am afraid that I cannot find my camp." The Cheyenne woman 
gave her the child. 

A small Crow boy who in some way escaped from the camp 
followed up the Crow war party and told them that their camp 
had been captured. The Crows rushed back to the assistance of 
their people, but on the way their horses became exhausted and 
they reached the place too late. 

The Crow people who during the night had gone off with the 
man who had been beaten by Whistling Elk finally for the most 
part turned about and started back to the camp. It was a little 
after sunrise when they neared the camp. The Cheyennes saw 
them coming and hid themselves, and just as the Crows reached 
the border of the camp they rode upon them from all directions 
and captured them all. A Crow woman then captured used to 
say that when the Cheyennes swept down upon the returning 
Crows they drove them to the Cheyenne camp like a herd of 
horses. 

Lieutenant J. H. Bradley ^ has published the Crow tradition 
concerning the capture of this camp. According to this version 
the camp was attacked by one thousand Cheyennes and Sioux. 
The plains were " literally strewn for a considerable distance with 
the corpses of men, women, and children. ... At least five 
thousand of the Crows had fallen, but that was not all. All 
their lodges — a thousand in number — all the equipage of their 
camp, and hundreds of horses had passed into the hands of the 
victors, who also carried away as captives four hundred young 
women and children." 

These statements may be considered wild exaggerations, per- 

^ White Bull's grandmother. 

* Montana Hist. Cont., II, p. 179. 



A CROW BATTLE 27 

haps mere literary flourishes to make impressive this defeat which 
was sufficiently severe without enlargement. 

I cannot fix with precision the year in which this battle took 
place. Bradley gives it as 1822, which is probably near enough. 
Whistling Elk's son, Spotted Wolf, was presumably born in 1820, 
but we do not know the age of Whistling Elk at the time of this 
occurrence. No doubt he was a young man from eighteen to 
thirty. White Bull was born in 1837. His grandmother was 
present at the fight, and his grandfather was probably a middle- 
aged man, between forty and fifty years old. Long Chin, who 
died in 1887 or 1888 at the age of eighty-two, declared that he 
was a young man at the time of the fight. It seems probable 
that the date was not far from 1820, and if this is the fact it was 
one of the earliest Cheyenne fights of which we have definite 
knowledge. 

It was not very long after this that out on the prairie the 
Cheyenne camp was moving from place to place. They had many 
Crow captives. In some lodges there were four or five.^ 

One day they were camped in the circle when on a hill not far 
off a man was seen riding backward and forward. He was near- 
est that place in the circle of the camp where the Dog Soldiers' 
lodges stood — so near, in fact, that some women who had gone 
out for wood and water heard his voice, but they could not tell 
what he was saying, nor were they certain what he was doing. 
Some of them said to each other : " That man is mourning and cry- 
ing." Others said: "No, he is singing a song." The man looked 
like a Crow, and some suspected that this might perhaps be some 
stratagem of the Crows to get revenge, and called to their fel- 
lows: "Look out; be careful; perhaps this man has come here to 
lead us into a trap. Let no one go toward him until we are all 
ready and can go together." 

Notwithstanding this advice, twelve young men — relations 
of the keeper of the medicine arrows — who were anxious to catch 
the man, did not listen to what was said but jumped on their horses 
and started toward him. All the other Cheyennes were getting 

1 George Bent says the old Southern Cheyennes always place this second 
Crow fight at the mouth of Horse Creek on the North Platte, thirty-seven 
miles east of where Fort Laramie was later built. 



28 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ready, but waited for the last ones, and finally all went out to- 
gether. They were some way behind the twelve who had started 
first. When the man who was riding on the hill saw that he was 
being followed he rode away over the hill, and the twelve young 
Cheyennes rode after him. The Crow had a long start, but his 
horse did not seem fast. He went slowly until the Cheyennes 
had come close to him. Then his horse ran a little faster, and the 
man was seen to whip it on both sides. All the Chej'ennes were 
riding hard, each one striving to be the first to get near him. 
They were all watching him and not looking at anything else. 
The man rode to a little gap between two hills and passed through 
not very far ahead of the twelve Cheyennes. Then, as they fol- 
lowed him, they heard the war-cry from both sides, and from each 
side saw a great party of Crows charging them. The Cheyennes 
turned to ride back, but it was too late. They were surrounded 
and eight were killed. From a distance the main body of the 
Cheyenne warriors saw rising behind this hill a great dust that 
cast a dark shadow over the prairie. They passed through the 
gap and met the Crows; turned them back and drove them a long 
distance, killing six. 

After the Crows had been driven off, the Cheyenne women 
went out with their travois and brought to the camp the bodies 
of the dead. In the lodge of the keeper of the medicine arrows they 
made up eight beds and on them put the bodies of the men. 
From some the Crows had cut off the heads and from others the 
arms and legs, but they put them together as best they could. 
The relations of the killed had some Crow captives, and of these 
they killed eight and piled them up against the outside of the 
lodge as logs are laid on the border of a lodge covering to keep 
out the wind. 

At the Fitzpatrick treaty (1851) the chief of the Crows pres- 
ent pointed out to the Cheyennes a certain man and said to them: 
"There is the one who led you into a trap that time." The 
Cheyennes looked and saw the Crow, an old man painted red all 
over, and wearing a necklet of crow feathers, the tips of which 
had been cut off, hanging down all about his neck. The Chey- 
ennes said to him: "We have been wanting to see you for a long 
time, for some of our people who heard you at that time said 
that you cried and some said that you sang." The Crow an- 



A CROW BATTLE 29 

swered them, saying: "I did both. I cried for those who had 
been killed, and I sang a war song for revenge." 

Much of the story of this capture comes from the descendants 
of women taken in the battle, of whom there are many in the 
Cheyenne camp. The grandchildren of those who took part in 
the fight and the grandchildren or children of those captured are 
now old people. 

Some years after the capture of the Crow village, and after 
the fight in which the young men, relatives of the medicine arrow 
keeper, had been drawn into the trap and killed by the Crows, the 
Crow chief learned that his son, who had been captured in the 
village, was still alive and was among the Cheyennes. When he 
heard of this, probably from some Arapahoes, he sent a runner 
to the Arapaho chief to notify him that he was coming down to 
the Platte with his band on a friendly visit. 

This was soon after the Cheyennes and Arapahoes began to 
move south of the Platte to live, perhaps 1831, and at this time 
there was a camp of Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Atse'nas on 
the South Platte, at the mouth of Crow Creek, which heads near 
Cheyenne Pass, where Cheyenne, Wyoming, now stands, and 
empties into the Platte east of Greeley, Colorado. 

When the Crows arrived they set up their camp at some dis- 
tance from the Arapahoes and Atsenas and farther away from the 
Cheyennes, and the Crow chief then prepared a feast and invited 
the Arapaho and Atsena chiefs to attend. The Cheyennes stayed 
away. After everyone had eaten, the Crow chief spoke to the 
Arapaho and Atsena chiefs and told them that he had come to 
try to induce the Cheyennes to give up his son. When the 
feast broke up the Arapahoes and Atsenas went to the Cheyenne 
camp and repeated what the Crow chief had said. The Cheyennes 
then spoke to the Crow chief's son, who was called Big Prisoner, 
and asked him what he thought of this matter. Big Prisoner 
had now been with the Cheyennes for several years and had been 
treated very well. His adopted parents had given him everything 
he wanted and he w^as very fond of the Cheyennes and had re- 
cently married a Cheyenne girl; so when the subject of his return 
to the Crows was spoken of he said that he wished to remain with 
the Cheyennes. The Cheyennes told the Arapahoes to repeat to 
the Crows what Big Prisoner had said. 



30 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The Crow chief was not satisfied with this answer. He saw 
that there were only fifty lodges of Cheyennes and he had nearly 
twice as many lodges with him. He now gave a second feast to 
the Arapaho and Atsena chiefs, and after they had eaten he said 
to the Arapahoes that their tribe and his had always been pretty 
good friends and the Arapahoes had not helped the Cheyennes 
attack the Crows. He said the Cheyennes were bad people, 
always attacking their neighbors, and he wished the Arapahoes 
to show their friendship for him by handing over the Cheyennes 
to him. 

There was a young Atsena present at this feast. He was a 
very brave man who had recently been made a chief by the 
Arapahoes. This Atsena, Small Man, now said to the Crow 
chief that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had always been friends 
and had been living together and dying together for many years, 
and that if the Crows wished to fight these Cheyennes they must 
count on fighting the Arapahoes and Atsenas also. Several 
Arapahoes spoke and approved of what this Atsena had said. 
The Crow chief then said that he had done all he could to recover 
his son and he now intended to let the matter lie where it was. 
He said that the next day the Crow warriors would give a big 
dance in the Arapaho camp in honor of their friends, the Arap- 
ahoes and Atsenas, and after that he would return home. 

There was a man in the Crow camp who had friends or rela- 
tions in the Arapaho camp, and that night he slipped over to the 
Arapaho lodges and told one of his friends that the Crows in- 
tended to come to the camp in great force and well armed, and 
that during the dance they intended to attack the Arapahoes, 
Atsenas, and Cheyennes by surprise, kill them all, and get back 
Big Prisoner and all the other Crow captives. He said that two 
big Crow men had been selected to ride up on each side of the 
Crow chief's son, pick him up by the arms, and carry him off 
between their horses at a gallop. The Arapahoes at once notified 
the Cheyennes of this plot. Councils were hastily held and it 
was decided to remain on guard all night. All kept their clothes 
on, and the men lay with their arms beside them. The Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes kept sending out scouts all through the night, 
and, seeing these scouts, the Crows knew that their plan had been 
discovered, so they also were on guard until morning. 



A CROW BATTLE 31 

The next day the Crows did not come to dance In the Arapaho 
camp. They kept in their own camp, with scouts out. Toward 
noon the scouts on either side came into collision and at once all 
the warriors mounted and formed in two lines, the Crows in front 
of their camp, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Atsenas in front 
of theirs. The women and children packed up everything and 
prepared to run away, leaving the lodges standing. Neither side 
made a charge, but brave men rode out and met between the 
lines, and these single combats were going on most of the time 
for several hours. In these fights, Small Man, the Atsena who 
had spoken at the feast, was very brave, and the Cheyennes say 
they saw Little Mountain, the Kiowa chief, fighting on the Crow 
side. Toward evening the Crow women took down their lodges 
and moved off up Crow Creek, and soon afterward the warriors 
followed, guarding the rear. The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and 
Atsenas did not pursue them. 

Big Prisoner remained with the Cheyennes until his death, 
some years later. 



IV 

WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 

When the Cheyennes began to work west and southwest from 
the Missouri River they found the country occupied by the Kiowas 
and the people whom they call — when they are in the mountains 
— Sus'soni, and on the plains Shi shi' m wo is tan iu: Snake 
People — the Comanches. The Cheyennes recognize the extremely 
close relationship which exists between these two tribes of the 
mountains and the plains, and say that the Shoshoni ought to be 
called the Mountain Snakes or Mountain Comanches. The 
Comanches, they say, ranged from the Yellowstone River south 
to beyond the Platte. 

The wide range of the Shoshoni stock on the plains has per- 
haps not yet been fully appreciated. I believe that, at the time 
of the migration southward of the Blackfeet, the Snakes, or 
Shoshoni, occupied much plains territory from the St. Mary's 
River, in Montana and British America, southward, perhaps to 
the Yellowstone. As late as 1840 the Mountain Shoshoni used 
to make war excursions out on the plains of the north, and a war 
party of them once came as far south as Bent's Fort, where, 
during a quarrel arising from their insistence that they should be 
admitted within the fort at an inopportune time, one of them 
was killed. 

Some of the writers on the plains tribes seem not to have un- 
derstood the close relationship of Shoshoni and Comanches, and 
persons who are aware that the Comanches were reported in the 
eighteenth century as ranging in Texas and Mexico perhaps have 
not realized that people of the same blood and speaking the same 
language may have lived at the same time on the northern plains 
under another name. A realization of that fact may serve to 
clear up some apparent confusions. I believe that in the matter 
of the relationships of the tribes who lived about him the Indian 

32 



WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 33 

was a much better ethnologist than the early trapper, trader, or 
missionary who wrote books upon the West, which he had just 
ventured into and whose people and products were absolutely 
new to him. 

The Kiowas were found by the Cheyennes living about the 
Black Hills and along the Little Missouri, Powder, and Tongue 
Rivers, and the Cheyennes say that it was from the Kiowas that 
the Little Missouri River received its name Antelope Pit River,^ 
for there the Kiowas used to entrap great numbers of antelope 
in pits, and it was there and from observing the traps made by 
their predecessors that the Cheyennes learned to catch antelope 
in this manner. 

The Kiowas had long been dwellers in the northern country. 
They were near neighbors of the Crows and their close associa- 
tion and friendship with that tribe is historic and was never in- 
terrupted. They have a band or division known as the Ree 
band, descendants of people said to have been especially inti- 
mate with the Arikaras. This suggests a range on the plains 
between the Crows on the west and the Rees on the east. It 
is certain that in early times there was much friendly intercourse 
between the Crows and the tribes later known as the Village In- 
dians of the Missouri. 

The early meetings of the Cheyennes with the Kiowas and 
Comanches were friendly. I have heard no tradition of the origin 
of their first quarrels, but fightings did take place, with the result 
that Kiowas and Comanches were gradually pushed farther 
south and finally expelled from their former range, until at the 
beginning of the historic period the range of the Kiowas was about 
the North Platte River. From here they kept working farther 
southward, partly, no doubt, attracted by the horses which were 
so easily obtained from the Mexicans, and partly perhaps pushed 
south by their enemies to the north — Cheyennes and Sioux. 

The Cheyennes say that when they first secured possession of 
the Black Hills country, which included the Little Missouri 
and the Cheyenne Rivers and the country lying toward Powder 
River, the Yellowstone, and the North Platte, there were no 
Sioux in that country; that their migration thither came only 
after the Cheyennes were thoroughly established there. They 
^ Antelope Pit River — Wokaihe' yunio' he. 



34 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

declare that the first Sioux who came were very poor and had no 
horses, which the Cheyennes had already obtained either by 
capture of wild horses or by taking from people to the south or 
west; that when the Sioux came, carrying their possessions on dog 
travois, the Cheyennes took pity on them and occasionally gave 
them a horse; that this generosity resulted in the coming of more 
and more Sioux to receive like presents, until as time went on still 
more Sioux crowded into the country and they became very 
numerous. 

This statement is supported by one of the Sioux winter counts^ 
which states that the Black Hills were discovered by a Dakota 
in 1775, at which time the Cheyennes had long occupied them. 
Mooney believes that the Kiowas were expelled from that region 
by the Dakotas, but mentions 1770 as the date of a great battle 
between Kiowas and Dakotas in the Black Hills region. Only 
four years before that date Carver found the Nadouessi of the 
plains living at the head of the St. Peter's River, a long way from 
the Black Hills. The earlier travellers on the Missouri River 
recognized that the Dakotas had only recently come to that 
stream, and the Mandans told Verendrye (1738) that to the south 
of them there were no Sioux; all were to the east. Even in 1804 
the Teton Sioux had not all crossed the Missouri River. 

Besides crowding out from their early home the Kiowas and 
Comanches, the Cheyennes, as they moved out over the plains 
country, in like manner forced the Crows westward toward the 
mountains. From the old Cheyennes much is heard at the 
present time about the wars with the Kiowas and Comanches 
less than a century ago, but all this fighting seems to have taken 
place in the southern country, where about 1835 the Arkansas 
River separated the range of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes from 
that of the allied Kiowas, Comanches, and Prairie Apaches, who 
roamed in the country south of that river and toward Texas. 

Between about 1826 and 1840 a bitter warfare was waged be- 
tween these two parties of allies. This very likely arose from the 
need for horses, which they obtained chiefly from the south, and 
it is likely that the horse was an important cause for the south- 
ward movement of all these tribes. The Kiowas and Comanches 

1 Records, painted on skins, of the chief event of each one of a series of 
years. See Handbook of American Indians, "Calendar." 



WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 35 

made frequent raids into the country of the Mexicans, in Texas 
and south of the Rio Grande, and from these foraj's brought 
back great herds of horses. These in turn were taken from them 
by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, from whom again they were 
captured by the Pawnees and by other tribes still further to the 
north. In this way the horses were passed along from tribe to 
tribe and spread with extraordinary rapidity from the south 
northward over the whole plains country. That many of these 
were taken from the Mexicans is shown by the fact that many 
were branded. "^ 

Although, according to tradition, the wars that were waged 
between the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and the Kiowas, Com- 
anches, and Apaches lasted for many years, it is nevertheless cer- 
tain that in 1820-21 they, or a part of them, were on perfectly 
good terms with each other and commonly associated. In 1820 
or thereabouts Long found all these tribes moving to the head of 
the South Platte River, where they were reported recently to 
have returned from the Arkansas River or further south. He 
refers to a trading visit reported four years earlier. In Novem- 
ber, 1821, Jacob Fowler reported that he had travelled with 
seven hundred lodges of Indians up the Arkansas River, of whom 
he mentions: letans, Arapahoes, Kiowa Padduce, Cheans, of 
whom there were two hundred lodges, and Snakes — presumably 
Comanches. The Kiowa Padduce were very likely the Kiowa 
Apache.2 

In 1828, however, the Cheyennes and Comanches were at 
war, and in this year the well-remembered battle took place be- 
tween Comanches under Bull Hump and Cheyennes and Ara- 
pahoes under Yellow Wolf. 

With a large party of Comanche warriors Bull Hump' had 
come to the stockade which William W. Bent had built at the 
mouth of Huerfano River. While they were there some of the 

^ Dutisne (1719) to Bienville, in Margry, vol. VI, p. 313. Umfreville in 
1789 says: "I myself have seen horses with Roman capitals burnt in their 
flanks with a hot iron." The Present Stale of Hudson's Bay, p. 178. 

2 Journal of Jacob Fowler, edited by EUiot Coues, pp. 55, 59, 65. (New 
York, F. P. Harper, 1898.) 

3 Old Bull Hump signed a treaty about 1835. A Bull Hump is mentioned 
in 1850 in Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes. The son or nephew of this man signed 
the treaty of 1865 as Bull Hump, third chief of the Penetethka band. 



36 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

young men went out and saw the moccasin tracks and other 
signs of a war party of Cheyennes which had just left the post. 
Bull Hump asked Bent if he knew where these Cheyennes came 
from; where their village was. Bent told him they had come in 
from the northeast. The Comanches remained there that after- 
noon and went away that night to begin a search for the village 
of the Cheyennes. They sent out a small party of scouts who at 
length returned and reported that the Cheyenne village was a 
little farther ahead on a stream which the whites now call Bijou 
Creek. That night a number of Bull Hump's men slipped off 
from him and went over to the village and ran off all the Chey- 
enne horses, so that the Cheyennes could not follow them, for 
they had nothing to ride. 

At this time Yellow Wolf and Little Wolf, Cheyennes, with 
eighteen or twenty men had been out chasing wild horses on the 
Arkansas River. During the trip Walking Coyote, a Ponca cap- 
tive, caught a great many wild horses — about thirty-five head. 

They were returning up the Arkansas River with their horses, 
and above where Sand Creek runs into the Arkansas turned off 
toward their camp on the South Platte, where the main Chey- 
enne village was. As they were going along in the night. Yellow 
Wolf and Little Wolf and Big Old Man being in the lead while 
the others were behind with the horses, the leaders smelled burn- 
ing buffalo-chips. They stopped and when the others had come 
up Yellow Wolf said: "Can you smell that?" All said: "Yes." 
Yellow Wolf directed two of his men to go forward on their fastest 
horses and see who it was that had made this fire. 

It was in the middle of the night. They were making for 
the Black Lake (Mohksta'av ihan'), about forty or forty-five 
miles due north of old Fort Lyon, where there is a spring. Black 
Lake was so called from the color of the soil round about. The 
water was alkali, but horses and buffalo drank it, though people 
did not. The large fine spring was west of it. This was a great 
range for wild horses, and horse trails as deep as the old buffalo 
trails came to it from many directions. 

To the scouts starting out Yellow Wolf said: "Go to the 
spring. That is the only water about here, and if they have 
camped anywhere they must be there. Find out who they are, 
but be very careful." 



WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 37 

The scouts started, following up the smell of the smoke. 
When it got strong and they thought they were pretty near to 
the fire they stopped, and one of them held the two horses while 
the other crept up very quietly, closer and closer, until he had 
come near enough to see a number of small fires and to hear peo- 
ple talking. Getting still nearer, he could hear that they were 
talking Comanche. He saw also that the camp was a large one, 
and that the place was black with horses. 

Yellow Wolf was a great chief, a very wise man. WTien the 
scouts returned he said: "We must turn off here and go around 
and get on the opposite side of them." This would bring the 
Cheyennes on the side of the Comanches which was toward their 
own camp, so that if the Comanches pursued them they would be 
running toward the big Cheyenne camp and not from it. Every- 
one kept very quiet and they drove along slowly and silently until 
they had come to the opposite side of the Comanche camp. Here 
Yellow Wolf left some men with the herd of captured horses and 
said to them: "Just as soon as daylight comes, so that you can see 
well, start your horses along. We will go down there and they 
will charge on us and you will hear firing. When you hear this, 
do not wait. Hurry the horses along as fast as you can." The 
other men rode quietly up as close as they dared to the Comanche 
camp and waited there until just about daylight, till they could 
begin to see fairly well. 

Yellow Wolf told his young men that there were many Co- 
manches and that they would be sure to fight. To Walking Coyote, 
his adopted son, of whom he thought more than he did of his 
own sons, he said: "My son, you know what to do? Do your 
best. You have a fast horse and you must stay behind and try to 
fight off these Comanches, while we run off the horses. We cannot 
very well fight and run off their horses, too. Afterward we will 
divide the horses up in equal shares." 

As soon as it was plain daylight they could see horses every- 
where. The Comanches had had herders out, but at daylight, 
thinking that everything was perfectly safe, they went into the 
camp. The Cheyennes could see that the Comanche horses were 
still pretty well bunched up together as they had been left by the 
herders. Many of the Comanches had their finest horses picketed 
in the camp. 



38 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

When it had grown Hght enough Little Wolf said: "Let us 
go; do not make too much noise at first." They rushed toward 
the camp, and after they had got around the horses began to whoop 
and yell, and then to shoot, starting all the loose Comanche horses 
to running and sweeping them all off. When the Comanches saw 
the horses running they began to shoot at those who were driving 
them and to shout directions to each other. One especially fine 
horse was picketed right in the camp, and Walking Coyote rode 
down into the camp, jumped off his horse, cut the rope which 
held the Comanche horse, mounted again and started off with it. 
Walking Coyote overtook his party and handed the rope of the 
horse he had cut loose to Yellow Wolf, his father. The Comanches 
began to jump on their horses and to ride after the Cheyennes. 
The Cheyennes rushed the horses off, but Walking Coyote and 
the other men stayed behind to fight the Comanches, to try to 
keep them back. 

Of the Comanches whose fast horses were tied in camp there 
were not very many, perhaps not more than twenty-five or thirty, 
but these followed fast. Many of the tied horses, frightened by 
the charge and the shooting, broke their ropes or pulled up their 
pins and followed the herd. Every now and then a frightened 
horse that had pulled up his pin, but had run off in some other 
direction, would come up from behind and join the herd. The 
Cheyennes who were driving the herd and were close behind it 
said that they had to keep dodging to avoid the flying picket- 
pins at the ends of the ropes pulled up by the Comanche war 
horses. 

As the light grew stronger and the men driving the horses 
were able to see them better they began to recognize Cheyenne 
horses in the herd that they were taking off — those that the Co- 
manches had taken from the Cheyenne village only a short time 
before. 

A man who was behind rode up to Yellow Wolf and said: 
"They are getting close. They will soon overtake us." 

Yellow Wolf replied: "Now, all who have guns must turn 
back and charge on them. That is the only hope we have of 
getting away from them. We must fight them." 

When Yellow Wolf gave the word all the Cheyennes who had 
guns turned about and charged back among the Comanches. 



WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 39 

Yellow Wolf rode up close to a Comanche and poked his gun 
against his body and fired, and the Comanche dropped from his 
horse. Walking Coyote counted coup on him. Another man 
shot a Comanche off his horse; and the Comanches were so sur- 
prised and frightened at the suddenness of the attack that they 
all whirled about and began to run. That ended the pursuit. 

When the Comanches left them the Cheyenne party had al- 
most overtaken the young men who were driving the captured 
wild horses, and they signalled them to stop and wait for them. 
It was only about this time that they fully recognized the great 
number of Cheyenne horses in the herd which they had taken 
from the Comanches. 

Yellow Wolf then said : " We have here some Cheyenne horses 
and these we shall have to give back to the owners, but the Co- 
manche horses we will divide." They did so. 

Before they reached the Cheyenne village Little Wolf, who 
died about 1886, aged ninety-two years, tied one of the Comanche 
scalps on the ramrod of his Hudson Bay gun, while Yellow Wolf 
tied the other scalp on a pole, and when they charged down into 
the village Little Wolf shot his gun off in the air and the two rode 
about waving the scalps. 

When they drove the herds into the camp and the Chey- 
ennes who had lost their horses saw that they had been recap- 
tured, there was great rejoicing. The men who had brought back 
these horses afterward said that their necks were sore from being 
hugged by the people whose horses they had returned. 

After peace had been made with the Comanches, in 1840, Bull 
Hump said that the pursuing Comanches, when they saw the herd 
of loose horses ahead, supposed that they were approaching a 
large Cheyenne camp, and that it was chiefly for this reason that 
they gave up the pursuit. 

From this time fighting was constantly going on between the 
Cheyennes and the Kiowas and Comanches, though most of the 
trips by the Cheyennes against the tribes to the south were made 
on foot and solely for the purpose of taking horses. On the 
other hand, when the Cheyennes went to war against the Pawnees 
to try to kill Pawnees and take scalps, they usually went on horse- 
back. Nevertheless, if a convenient opportunity offered to at- 
tack the Kiowas it was not neglected. Such opportunities oc- 



40 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

curred more or less frequently, since for very many years after 
they had moved south the Kiowas were accustomed to make 
frequent trips north to visit the Crows and renew old friendships. 
In making these journeys they usually kept in close to the flanks 
of the mountains to avoid the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who 
commonly camped well dow^n on the plains. Nevertheless, 
sometimes such a travelling Kiowa camp was seen and attacked. 

On one such occasion — about 1833 — some Cheyenne hunters 
discovered in the sand hills, east of where Denver now stands, a 
camp of about a hundred lodges of Kiowas travelling northward. 
They had with them many ponies which they expected to trade 
to the Crows for elk teeth and ermine skins. When the young 
men who had discovered the Kiowa village reported at the Chey- 
enne camp, it was determined to start during the night so as to 
reach the Kiowa camp in time to attack it early in the morning. 
By an error the Cheyennes were led to the wrong place, and when 
daylight came saw that the Kiowa camp was a long way from 
them, and that the Kiowas had already packed up and were about 
to move. The Cheyennes charged toward them and the Kiowas 
fled, but as the Cheyennes followed they overtook a Kiowa 
woman who had fallen from her horse carrying a little child. A 
Cheyenne rode up and counted coup on the woman, touching her 
with his lance but inflicting only a flesh-wound. The child which 
the woman carried on her back was but two or three years old, a 
little white girl captured by the Kiowas a short time before. 
She was taken to the Cheyenne camp and reared there, and in 
1912 was still alive and known as the Kiowa Woman. ^ Her Chey- 
enne name is White Cow Woman. She can speak only Cheyenne, 
but is apparently of Irish parentage, having blue eyes, brown hair, 
and an Irish countenance. 

Another story, told by Snake Woman, who said that as a 
young girl she was present at this fight, declares that Yellow 
Wolf's band of Hair Rope people and Black Shin's Suhtai were 
moving south, looking for buffalo, when they discovered the 
Kiowas on the march going north. The Kiowas fled to the timber 
on Scout Creek, afterward called Kiowa Creek, where the Kiowa 

^ The Cheyennes do not speak of her as WIt'a pat e ( = a Kiowa woman), 
but call her E nu tah", meaning a woman who is a member of some other 
tribe, a foreigner to their own blood. 



WARS WITH THE KIOWAS AND COMANCHES 41 

women and children took shelter while the men held back the 
Cheyennes. A very brave Kiowa, on a fine white horse and 
armed with a lance, charged the Cheyennes alone again and 
again. On one of these charges he lanced Man Above and 
knocked him off his horse. Finally, charging right through the 
Cheyennes, he was shot with three arrows, and turned and rode 
back toward his own people but fell before he reached them. 
The Kiowa women had dug pits in the timber and tied the horses 
among the trees. The Cheyennes charged up to them many 
times, but could not get the horses and finally left them. Snake 
Woman said that after the fight was over she saw the captured 
Kiowa woman wounded by the lance sitting in front of Black 
Shin's lodge. 

Bent says that in 1857 his father built a temporary trading- 
house on Scout Creek, and that the Bent boys used to go out and 
play in the pits that the Kiowa women had dug. 

When the great peace was made, in 1840, the Kiowas bought 
back from the Cheyennes the captured Kiowa woman, but did 
not wish the little white girl, who remained with the Cheyennes. 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 

1838 

The medicine arrows were the most sacred possession of the 
Cheyennes, and in the whole camp there was no one to whom 
greater reverence was shown than the keeper of the medicine 
arrows; but even his sacred character did not always protect him 
from the younger men. 

Some years after the capture of the arrows by the Pawnees in 
1830, a Cheyenne was killed by a fellow tribesman, and it became 
necessary to hold the ceremony of renewing the arrows. Until 
this had been done, no war party could set out with any hope of 
success. 

It happened at this time that the Bow String soldiers (Him 
a tan o'his) were anxious to go to war. They wished the arrows 
to be renewed so that they might set out at once, but when they 
spoke to Gray (Painted) Thunder, the arrow keeper, about it 
he told them that the time and place were not propitious and ad- 
vised them not to go. There was much dispute about this, but 
at length the Bow String soldiers told Gray Thunder that he must 
renew the arrows. He refused ; whereupon, the soldiers attacked 
and beat him with their quirts and quirt-handles until he prom- 
ised to renew the arrows for them. Gray Thunder was then an 
old man, over seventy. He renewed the arrows as ordered, but 
before the ceremony he warned the Bow String men that the 
first time they went to war they would have bad fortune. 

At this time the Southern Arapahoes,^ who were camped 
with the Cheyennes, were holding a medicine-lodge. The man 
who had vowed the ceremony lay on his belly on the ground and 
had a vision and prophesied. He said: "When we finish this med- 
icine-lodge dance we will make up a big party and go to war." 

^ Num o sin'ha uhi' a, Build the Fire in the South. 
42 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 43 

He referred not only to the Arapahoes but to the Cheyennes as 
well. While the ceremonies were still being performed and they 
were dancing another man called out : " Wait, wait, let everyone 
stop and keep quiet. You people who are talking about going 
to war and you Bow String soldiers, do not go. I have seen heads 
(scalps) coming into the camp from all directions, but I do not 
think they are the heads of enemies; I think they belong to our 
own people. There was no place in this medicine-lodge from 
which blood did not flow." 

Most of the people listened to what this man said, but, never- 
theless, small parties of young men began to steal away from camp, 
for the Cheyennes were a headstrong, obstinate people, and when 
they had made up their minds that they wanted to do a thing 
they were likely to undertake it even though they disregarded the 
ceremonies and violated the oldest laws. 

After the ceremonies the big camp began to split up quietly, 
but a man named Hollow Hip^ kept talking of going to war. He 
said: "Why should we not go to war? It is a bad thing to live 
to be an old man. A man can die but once." Bear Above^ 
also urged this, and at last they made up a small party of Bow 
String soldiers in which were four Contraries,^ and three servants 
went along to roast the meat. After this party had gone some 
distance on their way they began to see the trails of small parties 
which had stolen away from camp before them, and some time 
later they overtook them. The parties that had now come to- 
gether numbered forty-two men, all belonging to the Bow String 
soldiers, and their intention was to go south in search of a Kiowa 
or Comanche camp from which they could take horses and per- 
haps a few scalps. They were on foot. 

At first they found little game and were obliged to eat the 
food they had carried with them. Soon after that was exhausted 
they found game, but in killing it shot away most of their arrows. 
They travelled many days and at last they found the Kiowas, 
Comanches, and Apaches encamped in the valley of Washita 

1 Hollow Hip (Tsohp tsI'Qn a). 

^ Bear Above (He a,mma nah'ku). 

2 Contraries, men possessing special powers and living according to special 
rules. One of these was that their speech or acts reversed what they wished or 
were asked to do. Hence the term contrary. 



44 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

River. Here the party hid in a ravine and two scouts went to 
the top of the bluffs, where they lay and watched the camps in 
the valley below. 

Early the next morning a Kiowa started out to hunt before 
any of the rest, and as he passed over the bluffs he saw the heads 
of the two Cheyenne scouts as they peered over the hill-top. The 
hunter rode nearer to get a better view of these people, and they 
fired at him. They missed him, but one of the bullets struck his 
horse and crippled it for a moment; the scouts rushed forward 
to kill their enemy, but before they reached him the horse recovered 
and carried its rider safely off. The Kiowa returned to camp and, 
pointing to his horse, said that he had been fired at by two enemies. 

The Kiowas and Comanches seized their arms and rode swiftly 
to the place where the hunter had been attacked. They found 
there a few tracks on the ground, but the grass was starting 
strongly and in the grass it was impossible to trail men on foot. 
The Kiowas spread out and began running over the hills, looking 
everywhere for the enemy. Sa tank' led a large party to the north- 
west, but no trace of the Cheyennes could be found. When they 
had searched the whole countpy without success, the Kiowas 
turned back toward their camp, but on the way back a Mexican 
captive discovered a breastwork of stones thrown up at the head 
of a ravine, and at once signalled his find. Other Kiowa nar- 
rators, however, say that a signal was flashed with a mirror and 
that when they looked in the direction of the flash they saw a 
Cheyenne standing on the hill, signalling with his blanket for them 
to come to him. What probably happened is this: The Mexican 
found the Cheyennes, and the Cheyennes, seeing that they had 
been discovered and wishing to show their bravery, called the at- 
tention of other returning parties of Kiowas by flashing the mir- 
ror at them and then signalling with the blanket for them to 
come and fight. 

The Kiowas surrounded the Cheyenne position, and they 
fought there for some time. At length, however, according to 
the Kiowas, the Cheyenne ammunition gave out, and when this 
happened they charged upon the party and killed them all. 
They scalped them, but did not strip the bodies of their arms and 
clothing. James Mooney^ says that there were forty-eight men 

* Seventeenth Annual Report Bureau American Ethnology, p. 271. 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 45 

in the Cheyenne party and that one of them strangled himself 
with a rope to avoid capture. The Cheyenne account says noth- 
ing about this. Only six Kiowas were killed, a fact perhaps due 
to lack of ammunition among the Bow String men. This hap- 
pened in 1837. Mooney says that this fight took place on a small 
tributary of Scott Creek, an upper branch of the North Fork of 
Red River, in the Panhandle of Texas. 

The Cheyennes did not know the fate of the Bow String 
soldiers, for not one escaped to take home the news. Some time 
after the fight a party of Southern Arapahoes went somewhere 
to make a trade — probably to Fort Adobe, and not to Bent's 
Fort, for, as the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were constantly at 
Bent's in those days, the Kiowas and Comanches would not have 
gone to trade at a point where they would have been almost 
certain to meet enemies. As the Arapahoes approached this 
trading-store they saw that many Comanches, Kiowas, and 
Apaches were camped there and were holding war dances. The 
Arapahoes went over to look at them, and among the scalps that 
were being danced about they recognized the hair of Red Tracks 
and that of Coyote Ear, by the length and fineness and the way 
the hair was braided and tied up and the ornaments attached, 
but they said nothing. 

With the Arapahoes was a Sioux named Smoky Lodge. After 
he had seen the war dance he left the Arapahoes and started to 
the Cheyenne camp to tell the news. At last he reached the camp 
and told all that he had seen and heard; that the enemies had 
killed and scalped the Bow Strings but had not robbed the bodies. 
After he had told the news at the first camp, runners were sent out 
to take the news to all the camps. When they had heard it all the 
people were anxious to revenge these injuries. The most distant 
Cheyenne camp was that of the O mis'sis, who sent word that 
they would come as soon as possible. They were then chasing 
wild horses, and would soon be at Horse Butte and would follow 
down the stream. Horse Butte^ is a square butte near the forks 
of the Platte. 

Early in the winter Porcupine Bear, the chief of the Dog 
Soldiers, set out to go about from camp to camp arranging to get 

^ Possibly the square butte known as the Court House Rock. There are 
but three or four notable buttes near the forks of the Platte, and the Court 
House is the only square one. 



46 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the people together for the journey to war. With him he carried 
whiskey to give to the chiefs of the camps he came to, and at a 
big camp on the South Platte many of the Indians got drunk on 
the whiskey. In a drunken brawl with men of the camp the 
cousin of Porcupine Bear and Little Creek came to blows. The 
two were rolling on the ground, fighting, and Porcupine Bear's 
cousin kept calling on him for help; Porcupine Bear, also drunk, 
was sitting quietly by singing his songs, but at last, roused by his 
cousin's repeated calls, he drew his knife and stabbed Little Creek, 
who was holding down and beating his cousin. Porcupine Bear 
then called to all his relations and asked them to do as he had 
done. All drew their knives and cut Little Creek so badly that 
he died. In this way Porcupine Bear and those who had taken 
part in the fight became outlaws; Porcupine Bear lost his position 
as chief of the Dog Soldiers and was expelled from the band, and, 
with his relations who had taken part in the killing of Little Creek, 
from the main camp. They and their famOies, however, camped 
near the village — a mile or two from it. 

Little Wolf, chief of the Bow String soldiers, now took up the 
work of inciting the different soldier bands to avenge the killing 
of the forty-two Bow Strings, and soon the different camps began 
to come together. 

When the O mis'sis* came in sight of the big camp w^here the 
Cheyennes had assembled everyone was mourning; never were 
seen so many people mourning. All the women had gashed their 
legs, and blood was everywhere. When the O mis'sis were seen 
from the camp a crier was sent to meet them to tell them to stop; 
not to advance farther. Some people came to them from the 
main camp, wailing and mourning, and all the women of the 
O mis'sis camp began to feel badly and wailed and cried with 
them. They told the women of the O mis'sis to move into that 
place in the camp circle left for the O mis'sis, but all the men of 
the division remained behind. The young men all put on their 
war costumes and rode to the top of a hill as if about to charge 
an enemy's camp. When their women had made camp and 
turned loose the horses, the O mis'sis charged, shooting. They 
did not charge through the camp, but near to it and then rode up 
on a hill and the men of the soldier bands formed by fours, and 

1 mis'sfa, one of the clans or divisions of the Cheyennes. 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 47 

thus entered the circle of the village and rode around It to the 
opening and then out and, turning to the left and riding round 
the other way on the outside, entered the circle again, dismounted 
and dispersed. A short time after this ceremony was ended 
two men rode in and said: "In a little while a camp will move in; 
wait for them." Two days later in the afternoon the men of this 
newly arrived camp charged on the main camp and turned off 
before reaching it. After that the camp moved in and took its 
place in the circle. This band was Ma sihk'kota. 

Now that the whole Cheyenne tribe had come together they 
put up in the middle of the camp circle a large shade for the use 
of the different bands of soldiers. After all the soldiers had col- 
lected there, those who had lost children or relatives in the Bow 
String party came with horses and other presents and passed their 
hands over the faces of the soldiers, asking them to take pity on 
and help them. Blood was running down the arms and legs of 
the women, and when they passed their hands over the soldiers' 
faces they left blood on them. An old man, Hole in the Back 
(Wohko wi'pah), mounted a horse and rode slowly around the 
camp, calling out the names of all the soldier bands four times 
and of those young men who had not joined the soldier bands, 
and said: "All these presents are brought to you soldiers and to 
you young men, to induce you to take pity on these people." 

It was left to the chiefs to decide what action should be taken, 
but the}^ would not decide. Then it was left to the Red Shield 
soldiers to say what should be done, and the Red Shields ordered 
all the soldiers to fix their war bonnets and their shields and medi- 
cine head ornaments — to prepare for war. They said: "Look 
at the people who have given you all these things and take pity 
on them." So all was done as the Red Shields ordered. 

After this decision they remained for some time at this place. 
One band had all their horses stolen; one of these, the Chubby 
Roan Horse, is talked about to this day. Now, it began to snow 
and the snow got deep. When they moved they had to step in 
the footprints of those who w^ent before them. Some horses 
got very thin, and some even starved to death; the camp was so 
large that they could not get game enough to support them and 
the people came near starving. The snow was too deep for them 
to move about. As the season wore toward spring the big snow 



48 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

went off, but snow still lay on the ground. Through the winter 
they had seen no buffalo, but now some began to appear, and 
soon they were plenty. By this time in their search for food the 
big camp had been somewhat split up and scattered, but now 
messengers were sent out to ask all to come together. 

They thought that someone must be disturbing the buffalo 
and driving them toward their camp, so young men were sent out 
to see whether they could find the enemy. A man whose son 
had been killed said : " I am beginning to think about my son. I 
should like to go and look for him." 

When all had come together they moved south by way of 
Bent's Fort, and there obtained supplies of arms and ammuni- 
tion — Hudson Bay guns, flints, powder, and balls. From there 
they kept moving down the Arkansas River. The Arapahoes 
were encamped six or seven miles above Chouteau's Island on 
the Arkansas, and the Cheyennes moved down and camped just 
above them. In the Arapaho village was a certain Arapaho who 
possessed a medicine war club and who from this club was named 
E ku ko no hohwi', Flat War Club. After the Cheyennes had 
made camp they put up in the centre of the village a large lodge 
in which to hold a council, and sent runners to ask all the Arapaho 
chiefs to come and eat with them. When this word was taken 
to Flat War Club he sent a message to the Cheyennes saying that 
he wanted his Cheyenne friends to come and carry him over to 
the Cheyenne camp and to the centre lodge where they were 
going to have the feast. This was a request that the Cheyennes 
should pay him a very high honor. 

When this word was brought to the Cheyenne chiefs, they 
designated certain soldiers who took a strouding blanket and went 
to Flat War Club's lodge and put it on the ground. He sat down 
on it and the young men took hold of the edges and carried him 
over to the big centre lodge. Several times on the way they put 
him down on the ground and rested, for he was a large, heavy 
man, but at last they carried him into the lodge and put him down 
on the ground at the back, in the place of honor. After they had 
eaten Flat War Club rose to his feet and said: "My friends, I 
have asked you something pretty strong — that you Cheyenne 
chiefs should carry me over here to your camp — but I had a rea- 
son for doing this. From this war-path on which we are going I 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 49 

shall not come back. I am giving my body to you. I want to 
have the privilege of talking to your wives, because after this I 
shall never again be able to talk to anyone." Yellow Wolf and 
some other Cheyennes called out in response: "That is good. 
You shall do so. We will have the old crier call that out through 
the camp." Big Breast,^ a Cheyenne, also declared that he would 
not come back from this war-path. When the crier called out 
this news Big Breast walked ahead of him about the circle, carry- 
ing his lance and singing his death song. Big Breast had a wife 
and two little children, but he took no pity on them. Ponca 
Woman, then a girl of twenty, remembers Flat War Club's song 
and sang it to me in 1908. 

At this council Yellow Wolf and other chiefs said to the 
Arapahoes: "Friends, we have made this road — come to this 
decision — that no prisoners shall be taken. These people have 
killed many of our young men. Bow String soldiers, and that is 
the road that we have made — to take no one alive." 

From the Arkansas River they began to send out scouts to 
look for the enemy. Pushing Ahead^ and Crooked Neck' were 
the first two sent. These men went south looking for the enemy, 
but kept too far to the westward; nevertheless, one day while 
they were lying on a hill overlooking the valley of Wolf Creek 
they saw a small war party — only two or three men — coming down 
the stream, leading their horses and carrying shields and lances. 
"There," said Pushing Ahead, "there is a war party returning 
to the main camp." 

When the scouts had seen the Kiowas disappear they returned 
to the Cheyenne camp, which they found on Crooked Creek, 
which runs into the Cimarron from the north, and when they had 
made their report the chiefs called to the centre of the village a 
number of young men, Gentle Horse and some others, and sent 
them south to Wolf Creek to try to find the hostile camp. Mean- 
time the main Cheyenne camp moved on farther south, the 
scouts, of course, having been told at what points the different 
camps would be made. 

Gentle Horse had asked Pushing Ahead's opinion as to where 
the enemy's camp would probably be, but he and his party still 

1 Mo'ma kJ tSn hah', Big Breast. 2 Mg, It' slsh 6 mi'6, Pushing Ahead. 
» Nlm'I 6 tah", Crooked Neck. 



50 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

struck too far to the west. Nevertheless, one day as they were 
going up a ravine to cross the divide between Beaver and Wolf 
Creeks they unexpectedly saw some Kiowa and Comanche buf- 
falo hunters ride over the hills in front of them. The scouts 
dropped in the grass of the ravine, and presently, as the Kiowas 
and Comanches scattered out more, they crept down into the very 
bed of the creek, so that they were lying in the water among the 
rushes. In the chase a man, riding a bay mule, passed close by 
them; it was a good mule, very fast, and at once ran up close to 
a buffalo, which the Kiowa shot. The buffalo and hunter passed 
within a few yards of the Cheyenne scouts, but the man was 
watching his game and did not look about him. If he had turned 
his eyes toward them he must certainly have seen them. 

The Cheyennes waited, hidden, until the Kiowas had finished 
killing their meat and had begun to pack it into camp, and then 
carefully creeping through the grass and keeping in the ravine, 
they at last got out of sight, so that they were able to run away. 
Even now they did not know just where the Kiowa camp was; 
they knew only that it must be somewhere close at hand. 

The Cheyenne camp had just been pitched upon the Beaver 
when the scouts returned. When they came in Wolf Road was 
ahead, for he was the leader. As a sign that he had seen some- 
thing, Wolf Road carried in his hand the wolfskin which he always 
had with him. The approach of the scouts had been observed, 
and the chiefs had already gathered in the centre of the camp to 
receive the report. They were singing and some men were piling 
up a heap of buffalo-chips, behind which the chiefs stood. The 
scouts came toward the village running swiftly, and just as they 
reached the entrance of the circle they began to howl like wolves, 
and to turn their heads from one side to the other, like wolves 
looking. 

They entered the circle in single file. The men of the camp, 
who from these signs knew what the scouts were about to report, 
were putting on their war clothing, getting out their shields, and 
jumping on their war horses, for they knew that good news was 
coming — that the camp of the enemy had been found. The 
scouts ran around in front of the chiefs and stopped. Wolf 
Road told what he had seen, then Gentle Horse, then each of the 
others. They passed on around behind the chiefs, and then from 



52 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

all sides of the camp the young men on their horses charged to- 
ward the centre, each trying to be first to reach the pile of buffalo- 
chips and to strike it, for it represented an enemy. Three men 
might count coup on it. 

Then all the mounted young men rode around the chiefs while 
they were singing, and afterward they dispersed. 

All were now preparing for the attack on the camp of the 
enemy. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were camped together 
in one big circle, the Arapahoes at the northeast end. 

Now a crier mounted his horse and went to the south end of 
the circle, and from there rode about it, telling what these scouts 
had seen. He cried out that the village would move against the 
enemy that night. It was a time of great confusion — men sing- 
ing their war songs, painting themselves and their horses, fixing 
up their things and preparing to start. The lodges were left 
standing. The women built platforms on which to put some of 
their things, so that they should be above the ground and the 
wolves and coyotes should not gnaw and destroy them. During 
the night they set out for the camp of the enemy. 

Some time during that same afternoon — according to the story 
told years afterward by the Kiowas — some Kiowas who were out 
on the divide between Beaver and Wolf Creeks looked over to- 
ward Beaver Creek, eight or nine miles distant, and one of them 
saw something white. He pointed it out to his companion and 
said : " What is it that shines white there ? It looks like a number 
of lodges, and are not those horses about them?" The others 
looked, and then one of them said: "No, those things that you 
see are the white sand hills on the other side of the Beaver, and 
on this side of the next hill there are a lot of buffalo. That is 
what you see." Then the first Kiowa said: "But are there not 
white horses there?" "No," said the others, "that is the white 
of the sand hills, which you see beyond the buffalo when they 
move apart." They talked about this for a time, and then went 
back to their camp. It is probable that they saw the Cheyenne 
camp, which had just been pitched there and the horses feeding 
about. 

All night the Cheyennes marched south, still ignorant of the 
precise location of the enemy's camp. Extremely anxious to 
make the attack a surprise and fearing that parties of young men 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 53 

might steal away to strike a blow in advance, they surrounded 
the marching column with guards from the different soldier socie- 
ties to prevent anyone from leaving it. x\ll night long they went 
on, stopping occasionally to rest. The men were on horseback, 
while the women walked, leading the pack-horses, which hauled 
the travois on which the children slept. When daylight came 
they found themselves still upon the high prairie and not yet 
within sight of the stream on which the Kiowa and Comanche 
camp was. As it proved, they were too far east and so down- 
stream from the Kiowa camp. 

In this journey toward Wolf Creek the Cheyennes and Arap- 
ahoes had started together, but in the darkness and the uncer- 
tainty as to the precise position of the enemy's camp they had 
split up into at least two main parties and marched independently. 

Meantime the outlaws — whose camp was not far west of the 
large camp and who were aware of all that was happening — had 
gone forward at the same time with the main body, and from their 
position to the westward had approached Wolf Creek directly 
opposite the Kiowa camp. Just after the dusk of the morning 
Porcupine Bear, later called the Lame Shawnee, saw people ride 
over a hill before him — men and women going out to hunt buffalo. 
He was a little ahead of his party when, looking from a crest of a 
hill, he saw them coming. He called to his men to keep out of 
sight, saying: "Keep down, keep down out of sight. I will deceive 
them." His men remained hidden and he threw down his lance 
and began to ride backward and forward, making the sign that 
buffalo had been seen. When the Kiowas saw him they supposed 
that it was someone from their camp who had gone out before 
them and had found buffalo. They began to move toward him 
faster, still riding their common horses and leading the running 
horses. Porcupine Bear did not turn his face toward the enemy, 
but kept gazing off over the prairie, as if watching distant buffalo. 
He continued to do this until the Kiowas were so close that he 
could hear them talking. 

Down in the ravine behind him were the other Cheyennes, 
lying down on their horses, some fixing their shields, or putting 
arrows on the strings, and some already prepared for the charge. 
Presently Porcupine Bear said to them: "Be ready, now; they are 
getting close. We must not give them time to prepare for us." 



54 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

At last, when he could hear them talking plainly, he reached 
down to the ground, caught up his lance and, turning his horse, 
charged the Kiowas, and all the other Cheyennes followed him. 
The Kiowas were so close that the Cheyennes were on them be- 
fore they had time to act or time to think. They had no time to 
change horses, no time even to get their bows out of their cases. 
The Cheyennes lanced them and shot them down one after an- 
other until they had killed them all. They captured all their 
hdrses. The last Kiowa of all, with his wife, was so far behind 
that he had time to jump on his running horse and turned to flee, 
but his wife called to him: "Do not leave me," and he turned 
and rode back to help her and was killed. Porcupine Bear killed 
twelve. Crooked Neck killed eight. There were seven Cheyennes 
and thirty Kiowas, men and women. 

Thus these Cheyennes gained the glory of counting the first 
coups of this great fight, but because they were outlaws, the honor 
of it was not allowed to them, but to another man who counted 
the first coup in the general battle an hour or two later. Still, 
everyone knew what Porcupine Bear's young men had done. 

At this time the chief men of the Crooked Lance Society, or 
Him'6 we yuhk is, were Medicine Water,* Little Old Man,^ and 
White Antelope.^ The Red Shields were with the main party to 
the north and east of where later Walking Coyote killed a woman. 

Though the medicine arrows and the buffalo hat were with 
the tribe, an attack on the enemy was made before the ceremony 
of the arrows had taken place, and so the supernatural power of 
the arrows against the enemy was nullified. This is the reason 
universally given by the Cheyennes for the loss of so many brave 
men in the fight. 

It was well on in the morning, perhaps ten o'clock, when the 
soldiers who were scattered out on the south side of the western- 
most column of Cheyennes saw a man and woman ride up in 
sight, and they immediately charged on them. Walking Coyote, 
who was on a black horse given to him by his adopted father, Yel- 
low Wolf, was in the lead. The Kiowa man and woman turned to 
ride away, and the man who was on a fast horse got away ahead 

1 Ma I yun'I mJlp I, Medicine Water. 

2 Ma ahk'sl his, Little Old Man. 

8 Wokal hwo'ko mis, White Antelope. 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 55 

of his wife; she called to him to wait, but he was cowardly and 
rode on; so Walking Coyote overtook her, counted coup on her 
and then killed her. The man also was overtaken and killed. 

After the Kiowa man and woman had been killed, the main 
column went down a tributary of Wolf Creek far below the Kiowa 
camp, and from here, at last, they saw the camp above them on 
Wolf Creek. They turned and charged toward the lower end 
of the Kiowa village, and, seeing a number of people scattered 
about on the opposite side of the stream, not a few men crossed it. 
Here, on the south bank, almost opposite the lower end of the 
village, some Kiowa women were digging roots, and they killed 
twelve of them. 

Before they crossed the stream they overtook two men who 
were riding a single horse. A Cheyenne counted coup on the two 
men with a single blow, and called to the next Cheyenne behind 
him to ride up and hit the two men sideways, and count coup on 
them. His friend tried to do this, but struck only one of them; 
then the first Cheyenne shot the two Kiowas through with a gun. 
One fell from the horse at once; the other hung on a little longer 
and then fell. These two Cheyennes were of the same family.^ 

Those who did not cross the stream charged up toward the 
Kiowa village. Among these was Gentle Horse, who was seen to 
ride through the upper part of the Kiowa village and round up a 
large herd of horses and drive them off into the hills. He wore 
his hair tied up in a knot over his forehead and an eagle feather 
stuck through it, which was an ancient method of dressing the 
hair for war. 

After they had killed the women on the south side of the 
stream, Little Wolf, Medicine Water, and those who were with 
them charged up toward the Kiowa village and tried to cross the 
stream. It was deep and muddy, and on the side where the vil- 
lage stood the bank was high; their horses went slowly through 
the stream and could not get up the bank. Medicine Water had 
ridden close to the bank, which his horse could not climb, and 
above him on the bank stood a Kiowa in a yellow shirt. Medicine 
Water reached out with his lance to count coup on the Kiowa but 
the Kiowa seized the lance and dragged it out of his hand. Then 

' One was called Mo e'yii, the other Frog Lying on the Hillside (Ohn a 
hku'ha mish). 



56 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

he looked carefully at Medicine Water, who was wearing the iron 
shirt, to find some place where he might wound him, and finally 
wounded him in the neck close to the collar-bone. Little Wolf 
and another man counted coup on the Kiowa; then a great num- 
ber of Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches rode down to where 
Yellow Shirt^ was standing, and Medicine Water, Little Wolf, and 
the other Cheyennes were obliged to turn about and retreat 
through the stream to the south bank. The Kiowas followed 
them over, and there for a while was hot fighting and six Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes were killed. The Comanches made a 
charge and the Cheyennes retreated. One was behind, going 
slowly, and his companions called to him to hurry. He turned 
his head to look behind him and a Comanche shot him in the face 
with an arrow. The Comanche tried to knock him off his horse, 
but he whipped up and escaped. His first name was Medicine 
Bear.2 The enemy were now pushing back the Cheyennes, 
crowding them back. Howling Wolf was shot in the breast. 
The Cheyennes and Arapahoes on the south side when driven back 
crossed the stream to the main party. 

Gray Thunder was killed soon after Walking Coyote had 
counted his coup. He had said: "I will now give the people a 
chance to get a smarter man to guide them. They have been 
calling me a fool." A large party of Kiowas and Comanches 
rushed on them and rode right over them, killing Gray Thunder 
and Big Breast. Later Gentle Horse was wounded in the jaw, 
a Kiowa riding up behind him and putting the muzzle of his 
gun close to Gentle Horse's head. Gray Thunder was the first of 
the chiefs to be killed; next was Gray Hair;^ then an older man, 
named Deaf Man,^ was killed. He belonged to the Red Shields. 
He was their servant, an important man, for the servant's advice 
is almost always followed by the members of the soldier band to 
which he belongs. As Rising Sun^ was crossing the river he was 
wounded and fell off his horse. He rose to his feet and waded 
across, and as he reached the bank fell dead. Several other brave 
men, fighters, were killed in this battle. 

On the north side the Cheyennes and Arapahoes followed the 

^ Sleeping Bear was one of his Kiowa names ; Wolf Lying Down another, 
2 Nah'ku mM yUn, Medicine Bear. ^ Wohk'pa 6h", Gray Hair. 

* Hon yS. tSu ma h2,n, Deaf Man. ^ I'shI o mi Ists', Rising Sun. 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 57 

Ciowas right up to their camp, and there they fought behind the 
iodges. While the fight was going on some of the Kiowa women 
were digging rifle-pits in the sand-hills, breastworks to fight behind 
in case the Cheyennes absolutely got into the camp. Some of the 
women were putting saddles on their fastest horses and putting 
in the saddle-bags their most prized possessions, in case they should 
be obliged to run away. The Kiowas hid behind their breast- 
works. 

Porcupine, the son of the outlaw, Porcupine Bear, jumped into 
the Kiowa breastworks and was killed there after doing great 
things and killing several of the enemy. During a charge by 
the Kiowas, Two Crows jumped off his horse and said: "I shall 
ask none of you to take me on behind you. While I am fighting 
here you can get away." He was surrounded and killed. He 
was an important man. 

About the middle of the fight the Cheyenne and Arapaho 
women and children were moving up to the top of the hill to look 
over toward the battle-field and see what was taking place. As 
they were doing this some of the dogs began to bark in a ravine, 
and when the women ran over there a great tall Kiowa woman, 
wearing a blanket, jumped up. The widow of Medicine Snake 
rushed up to her and caught the Kiowa woman in her arms, call- 
ing out: "Come and help me; she is very strong." The Cheyenne 
women ran up and killed the Kiowa woman with their knives. 

When the people in the Kiowa and Comanche camp saw these 
women and children appear on the hill they were still more 
frightened, for they thought that it was another detachment of 
Cheyennes coming to attack them. The old Kiowa crier called 
out through the camp, telling the women to get their horses 
ready and to take the way up the creek, if they were forced to 
run. There was another camp of Comanches on the South 
Canadian, and the Comanches who were here with the Kiowas 
expected to run to that camp on the Canadian. 

Yellow Shirt, on whom coup had already been counted three 
times, now started out to fight on horseback. He was very brave, 
and in the fighting coup was again counted on him three times; 
then he returned, got another horse, and again came out to fight. 
Before he had been fighting long, someone shot him and broke 
his thigh, and he fell off his horse, but sat up with his bow and 



58 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

arrows to fight on. Here coup was counted on him three times 
more and he was killed. 

A Comanche chief, who early in the morning had gone out to 
hunt buffalo, heard of the fighting and returned to the camp as 
fast as he could. He mounted his war horse and charged, and 
many Comanches followed him. During the fight his horse was 
killed, but he returned to the Comanche village and got another 
and came out again. The Kiowas and Comanches were fighting 
behind their lodges, and behind breastworks that they had thrown 
up, but when the Comanches charged, the Kiowas followed them. 
Crooked Neck called out to his men : " Come, let us run and draw 
them away from the village." The Cheyennes all turned and 
ran and the enemy followed, riding hard, this Comanche chief in 
the lead. When they had gone far enough, Crooked Neck called 
out to his people: "This is far enough, now turn." The Cheyennes 
turned and charged, and the Comanches and Kiowas then turned 
and ran. Sun Maker, who was on a fast horse, almost overtook 
them, and shot an arrow into the back of the Comanche chief. 

Sun Maker watched the chief, and, as he drew close to the 
village, saw him begin to sway, and then saw him throw out his 
arms to catch his horse's neck, and saw him fall to the ground 
and women run toward him from all directions. After the peace 
was made, the Comanches learned who it was that had killed this 
chief. 

There was fighting about the village until the sun was low in 
the west, but at last the older people began to call out that they 
should stop fighting; that the Southern Arapahoes were going to 
make peace. As the Cheyennes were drawing off and crossing 
the river they found a woman hidden in some. driftwood; she 
supposed she had been seen and crept out and they shot her. 
They took pity on no one. 

The Cheyennes and Arapahoes went back to where the women 
were and prepared to go away. Then they set out to return to 
the camp on the Beaver. As they began to move, the Kiowas all 
mounted and rode up on a ridge and watched them from a dis- 
tance. A Cheyenne said: "We must look out for them; they 
may charge down and try to split the camp." 

Two days afterward a camp of Osages, who were then at peace 
with the Kiowas and Comanches, came up Wolf Creek to the 



THE BATTLE ON WOLF CREEK 59 

camp. They tried to persuade their allies to follow the Cheyennes 
and attack them, but the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches 
said: "No, they are gone; let them go." 

Lightning Woman said that after Gray Thunder was killed 
his wife took charge of the medicine arrows and carried them 
back to the Arkansas, where the tribe encamped near Bent's Fort. 
Here Lame Medicine Man of the Ridge Men band was given 
temporary charge of the arrows, but later Rock Forehead was 
selected as arrow keeper. Gray Thunder and Rock Forehead 
were both Aorta^ men. 

^ The clan or division known as I vis tsl nfli" pah'. 



VI 

THE PEACE WITH THE KIOWAS 
1840 

In the summer of 1840 peace was made between the Kiowas, 
Comanches, and Apaches and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes — 
at the "Treaty Ground." The Cheyennes call this place "Giv- 
ing presents to one another across the river." It is a wide bottom 
on both sides of the Arkansas River, about three miles below 
Bent's Fort. The site of Bent's Fort is on the north side of the 
Arkansas River, about six miles east of La Junta. 

Some time before this a kinsman of Little Raven, an Arapaho, 
had married an Apache woman, and for this reason the Apaches 
had some friendly intercourse with the Arapahoes, but as these 
camped and lived with the Cheyennes, who were at war with the 
Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches, the Arapahoes were often 
obliged to fight the Apaches. On one occasion some Apaches 
came to the Arapaho camp and told them that the Kiowas and 
Comanches were camped on the Beaver River — the north fork 
of the North Canadian — and wished to make peace with the 
Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The visiting Apaches were staying 
in the lodge of Bull, a noted Arapaho chief. 

At this time a war party of eight Cheyennes, under the leader- 
ship of Seven Bulls, was in the Arapaho camp, having stopped 
there on their way south to take horses from the Kiowas, Co- 
manches, and Apaches. 

When Bull learned of the wishes of these tribes he invited 
the Cheyenne young men to meet the Apaches. They went to 
his lodge, and after they were seated, Bull filled the pipe and 
offered it to the Cheyennes. Seven Bulls declined to smoke, 
saying to the host: "Friend, you know that we are not chiefs; 
we cannot smoke with these men nor make peace with them. 
We have no authority; we can only carry a message." 

60 



THE PEACE WITH THE KIOWAS 61 

Bull said to the eight Cheyennes : " The Kiowas and Comanches 
wish to make peace with you people, and if you will make peace 
they will bring back to you the heads (scalps) of those Bow 
String soldiers, wrapped up in a cloth. They will also give you 
many horses — horses to the men, and also to the women and 
children." 

Seven Bulls said to his host : " I have listened to what you say 
and to-morrow with my party I will start back to the Cheyenne 
village, and will carry this word to the chiefs. They must decide 
what shall be done. We are young men; we cannot say anything; 
but we will take your message back to the chiefs." 

When Seven Bulls got back to the camp on Shawnee Creek, a 
tributary of the Republican from the north, he told what had 
been said by Bull. The second morning the chiefs caused a big 
lodge, made of two lodge coverings, to be pitched in the centre 
of the circle, and all assembled there. They sent for Seven Bulls 
and the others of his party. The chiefs sat in a circle about the 
big lodge, and the young men sat near the door. After they had 
delivered their message, the chiefs discussed the matter, and it 
was finally agreed that a decision should be left to the Dog Sol- 
diers, as they were the strongest and bravest of the soldier bands. 
High Backed Wolf sent one of the two doorkeepers to call Little 
Old Man to the council and the other to bring White Antelope. 
These were two of the bravest of the Dog Soldiers. 

When they had come in and sat down. High Backed Wolf told 
them the message that had been brought, and said: "Now, my 
friends, do you two men go and call together your Dog Soldiers 
and talk this matter over, and let us know what you think of it; 
what is best to be done." 

The two left the lodge and called together their soldiers. There 
were many of them — all brave men. White Antelope told them 
what the chief had said. Then he went on: "The chiefs are leav- 
ing this matter to us, as being the strongest band of soldiers. 
It is my opinion that our chiefs are in favor of making peace with 
the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches. Now we are all here, 
what do you all think about it?" 

Beard, a head man among the Dog Soldiers, rose in his place 
and said : " I think it will be best that we leave the decision to you 
two men, White Antelope and Little Old Man. Whatever you 



62 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

say will please us all." And all the soldiers sitting about agreed 
that this should be done. Then these two chiefs said: "Very 
well, let it be so. We will make a peace with these tribes. Now, 
we will go back and tell our chiefs that we have decided ; that we 
have determined to make a peace. We will tell them that we 
will meet these people at the mouth of the Two Butte Creek, 
at the south side of the Arkansas River, where the dead timber 
lies so thick. Those tribes can meet us there, and we can then 
make arrangements about what we shall do afterward." The 
mouth of the Two Butte Creek is about fifty miles below Bent's 
Fort. 

Little Old Man and White Antelope went back to the council 
of the chiefs, and when they had entered the lodge told High 
Backed Wolf and the other chiefs that they would make a peace 
with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches. The chiefs all 
stood up and said: "Ha ho' ha ho', Hotam'itdn iu'' (Thank you, 
thank you, Dog Soldiers). They were glad to have the peace 
made. 

After that High Backed Wolf rode about the camp telling what 
had been done; that the chiefs and Dog Soldiers had agreed to 
make a peace with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches, and 
that no more war parties should start out against them. Then 
the whole camp moved toward the Fort, for they were anxious to 
trade for many things in order to make presents to the Kiowas, 
Comanches, and Apaches. 

Meantime they sent runners to the Arapaho camp and noti- 
fied the Apaches of what had been done. The runners went to 
Bull's camp, and told him what the Cheyennes had agreed to. 
The visiting Apaches at once started south to notify the Kiowas, 
Comanches, and Apaches. 

Two days after the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had gone into 
camp at the mouth of the Two Butte Creek^ they saw four Kio- 
was and a boy, two Comanches and an Apache come over the 
hill south of the camp and ride down toward them. The prin- 

^The Cheyennes called this place "Piles of Driftwood" (Mahks'I tsl ka'6 
Bika). Apparently at some time there was a tremendous cloudburst and 
flood somewhere on Two Butte Creek and great quantities of driftwood, 
large and small trees, were swept down to the mouth of the stream, where the 
wood still Ues heaped up in great piles. 



THE PEACE WITH THE KIOWAS 63 

cipal Kiowa was named To'hau sen, which is commonly translated 
Little Mountain. The others were Sa tank', or Sitting Bear, 
Yellow Hair, and Eagle Feather. The boy, who was a son of 
Yellow Hair, was called Yellow Boy. The Comanches were 
Bull Hump and Shavehead, and the Apache was Leading Bear. 
They rode into the circle, and in the midst of it dismounted and 
sat down in a row, and put the boy in front. After they were 
seated all the chiefs of the Cheyennes, carrying their pipes, went 
to where the strangers were sitting and sat down beside them, 
making a long row. Eagle Feather was carrying a pipe already 
filled. As soon as the Cheyennes had seated themselves Eagle 
Feather lit his pipe and stood up and passed along before the 
row of men, offering the pipe to each one, and each one took a 
puff. Thus the peace was declared. 

The strangers had brought with them the forty-two scalps 
wrapped up in a big bundle in a fancy Navajo blanket. Eagle 
Feather said to the chiefs: "Now, my friends, we have brought 
these heads, and they are here." But High Backed Wolf said to 
him: "Friend, these things if shown and talked about will only 
make bad feeling. The peace is made now; take the heads away 
with you and use them as you think best; do not let us see them 
or hear of them," 

Then High Backed Wolf stood up and called out to his people: 
"Now we have smoked and made peace with these tribes; if any 
of you have any presents that you wish to give these men, bring 
them here." Then Mountain stood up and said: "We all of us 
have many horses; as many as we need; we do not wish to accept 
any horses as presents, but we shall be glad to receive any other 
gifts. We, the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches, have made a 
road to give many horses to you when we all come here." 

Now the Cheyennes began to come forward, bringing their 
presents and throwing them on the ground before the strangers, 
and pretty soon all that could be seen of the boy was his head 
over the pile of blankets that surrounded him. After the pres- 
ents had been given, the strangers were taken to a big lodge and 
feasted there. The Comanches and Apaches did not have much 
to say — they let the Kiowas do the talking. 

After they had eaten. Mountain said to the Cheyenne chiefs: 
"Now, friends, choose the place where we shall come to meet 



64 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

you; it must be a wide place, for we have large camps and many 
horses." 

The Cheyenne chiefs answered, saying: "Just below the Fort 
is a big place on both sides of the river. We will camp on the 
north side and you people on the south side. Let us meet there." 

"It is good," said Mountain; "there we will make a strong 
friendship which shall last forever. We will give you horses, and 
you shall give us presents. Now, in the morning we will go back, 
and when we get to our camp we will send you a runner and let 
you know when we shall be there." The next day the strangers 
went away. 

Soon after that the Cheyennes moved up to the appointed 
place, and they had been there only three days when the Kiowa 
runners began to arrive. When at last the villages came, big 
dusts could be seen rising off to the south where the camps were 
marching and the many horses were being driven. When at 
last the camps were made they filled up the whole bottom on the 
south side of the river. 

Except when making a sun-dance the Kiowas do not camp in a 
circle, but in a body up and down the stream; and on this occasion 
it was so that they camped. When all had moved in, and the 
lodges had been pitched. High Backed Wolf mounted his horse 
and crossed the stream, and invited all the Kiowa and Comanche 
chiefs to come across to his camp to feast. He put up a special 
lodge in the centre of the circle and High Backed Wolf told all the 
Cheyenne chiefs to send kettles of food to the lodge. All the 
visitors entered the lodge and ate there. 

After they had finished eating. Mountain, the Kiowa, said: 
"Now, my friends, to-morrow morning I want you all, even the 
women and the children, to cross over to our camp and sit in a 
long row. Let all come on foot; they will all return on horse- 
back." 

The next day they all waded across the river, women and all, 
and sat in rows, the men in front and the women and children 
behind them. The first Kiowa to come up was Sa tank'. He 
had a bundle of sticks too big to hold in the hand, so he carried 
them in the hollow of his left arm. He began at one end of the 
row of men and went along, giving a stick to each. At length 
when all the sticks had been given away he went to some brush 



THE PEACE WITH THE KIOWAS 65 

and broke off a good many more. Mountain said: "Do not lose 
those sticks. We do not know your names, but as soon as we get 
through you must come up and get your horses." All the other 
Kiowas gave many horses, but Sa tank' gave the most; they say 
that he gave away two hundred and fifty horses. 

Some unimportant men and women received four, five, or six 
horses, but the chiefs received the most. The Cheyennes did not 
have enough ropes to lead back their horses; they were obliged 
to drive them across in bunches. The Kiowas, Comanches, and 
Apaches had sent their Mexican captives and their young men to 
bring in their horses from the hills and hold them close to the 
lodges, and they would walk along with the Cheyennes and point 
to one after another, saying: "I give you that one; I give you 
that one." 

After these presents had been given, High Backed Wolf in- 
vited the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches to come over the 
next day, asking them to bring their horses so that they could 
carry back the presents that would be given them. He told 
them that when they came they should go to the centre of the 
circle and sit in rows across it. After he returned to the Cheyenne 
village he rode through it, and told everyone to cook food for the 
visitors. 

The next day the people of the three tribes crossed the river, 
and entered the circle of the Cheyenne camp, where they sat down 
in rows. The chiefs of the three tribes sat in front. Then the 
Cheyenne women brought out the food in kettles and everybody 
ate. At that time, of civilized foods the Cheyennes had only 
rice, dried apples, and corn-meal, and to sweeten their food they 
had New Orleans molasses. They had no coffee and no sugar. 
But this food that the Cheyennes had was strange to the people 
from the south, and they liked it. 

After all had eaten. High Backed Wolf called out to his people 
that now their guests were through eating and they should bring 
their presents. "Those of you who are bringing guns must fire 
them in front of the lodges; not here close to these people." He 
spoke to the chief guests, saying: "Do not be frightened if you 
hear shots; it is our custom when we are going to give a gun to 
anyone to fire it in the air." Then for a little while it sounded 
like a battle in the Cheyenne camp — a great firing of guns. The 



66 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Cheyennes brought guns, blankets, calico, beads, brass kettles — 
many presents. 

After all these had been presented, High Backed Wolf said to 
the guests: "Now, we have made peace, and we have finished 
making presents to one another; to-morrow we will begin to trade 
with each other. Your people can come here and try to trade 
for the things that you like, and my people will go to your camp 
to trade." It was so done, and this was the beginning of a great 
trade. 

The peace then made has never been broken. 



VII 
WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 

The Cheyennes possessed two great medicines or protective 
charms — ^the medicine arrows and the buffalo cap or sacred hat. 
These were the most sacred objects owned by the tribe. They 
were deeply reverenced by all, and about them clustered some of 
the tribe's most important ceremonial. They have already been 
described in some detail/ but something must be said about them 
here. 

The arrows — ^believed to have been given to the Tsis tsis'tas 
by their Culture Hero — are four stone-headed arrows of very fine 
workmanship. Their power is for the men. The women of the 
tribe have nothing to do with them and may not look upon them, 
but all males of the tribe should do so, and whenever they are ex- 
posed to view even little baby boys are brought up to them so 
that they may see them. The arrows — ma huts' — are in charge 
of a keeper who holds the office through life, or until he volun- 
tarily gives it up, usually being succeeded by a son or a nephew. 
They are kept in the arrow keeper's lodge, wrapped up in a piece 
of fur cut from the back of a coyote and are exposed to view only 
on special occasions, which come at irregular intervals, when 
some man pledges himself to renew the arrows. This act is a 
sacrifice, or offering, made for the purpose of obtaining some 
favor or of avoiding some misfortune. On such an occasion large 
gifts must be made to the arrow keeper and to those who are to 
assist him in the work of renewing them. This commonly con- 
sists in rewrapping the arrows with fresh sinew and sometimes 
putting on new feathers. The ceremony lasts four days, and at 
the end of the fourth day the arrows are tied to a forked stick set 
up in the middle of the camp circle and — the women all with- 
drawing — the men pass by the arrows and pray to them. 

* American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. XII, No. 4, October to De- 
cember, 1910, p. 542. 

67 



68 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The sacred hat is called buffalo — Is'si wiin — and seems to 
typify the buffalo and food. I believe also that it pertains chiefly 
to the v.omen. It is a head covering made of the skin of the head 
of a buffalo cow, to which, when it came to the Suh'tal from their 
Culture Hero, were attached two carved and painted buffalo horns. 
The hat is also in charge of a chosen man who, like the arrow 
keeper, is a chief priest and one of the most important men in 
the tribe. 

A multitude of beliefs, ceremonies, and taboos belong to these 
two sacred objects. They are prayed to, sacrificed to, sworn by. 
Both are potent to bring good fortune and to heal the sick. Both 
are strong war medicines, and have often been carried to war — 
not always with success, because sometimes the people of the tribe 
have failed to observe the laws which govern them. It must be 
understood, however, that the hat and the arrows might not 
be carried on small or individual war parties, nor might they be 
separated. When they were taken to war the whole tribe — men, 
women, and children — was obliged to make the war journey. 
The men walked first and the women followed, carrying their 
babies or leading the horses that hauled the travois on which the 
children slept. 

When the hat or arrows were taken to war it was required 
that before the battle began certain ceremonies be performed, and 
if the enemy was attacked before these ceremonies were completed 
this act nullified the ceremonies and for the time being destroyed 
the protective power of the arrows and of the hat. Since abso- 
lute liberty prevailed in an Indian camp and such a thing as dis- 
cipline was practically unknown, and since each young man was 
eager to distinguish himself in the eyes of all the people by the 
performance of some brave deed, it often happened that when the 
enemy had been discovered and an attack was about to be made, 
some young men would steal away from the main body and, getting 
as close to the enemy as possible, would take a scalp or make a 
charge before the arrow ceremonies were completed. Such acts, 
in Cheyenne belief, accounted for some of their defeats or for 
other great misfortunes. 

The occasions when the whole tribe moved to war against any 
enemy and the medicine arrows and the sacred hat were carried 
along came but seldom, and usually followed some great provo- 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 69 

cation. So far as I can learn there are but six recorded move- 
ments of the arrows. The first of these took place, probably in 
1817, against the Shoshoni, at which time the enemy were not 
met. The second time was in 1820 or about that year against 
the Crows. The Crow camp was captured and many prisoners, 
women and children, were taken. The third move w'as against 
the Pawnees, in the year 1830, at which time the medicine arrows 
were captured by the Pawnees. The fourth move was in 1838 
against the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches; the fifth against 
the Shoshoni in 1843, and the last against the Pawnees in 
1853. 

In three of these cases some of the Cheyennes, by their im- 
petuosity, neutralized the protective power of the arrows. One 
of the moves was fruitless, and only two were successful. 

I am unable to find among the Cheyennes or Pawnees any 
tradition which tells of a permanent peace between these two 
tribes. Temporary cessations of fighting there were after the 
capture of the medicine arrows, in 1830, and after the Fitzpatrick 
treaty — also called the Horse Creek treaty and the Big Treaty — 
in 1851, but there was no permanence whatever to these truces. 
The Cheyennes regarded the Pawnees as brave people, and said 
that the Pawnees and the Crows were the two enemies against 
whom they had to fight the hardest. They used to say that when 
they met either of these tribes in battle the fight was like that of 
two buffalo bulls, both pushing hard; first one would push back 
the other, until he got tired, and then the other would push harder 
and drive back his opponent, and so the battle would swing back 
and forth. 

The Cheyennes were always anxious to exterminate the Paw- 
nees, and their attacks against them were continual. Perhaps 
the most important battle that ever took place — to the Cheyennes 
— was in 1830, when, carrying their two great medicines, they set 
out to destroy the Pawnees. The accounts of this fight, which I 
have had from a number of men who took part in it, are given in 
detail in the article already referred to. Briefly it was as follows: 

The Cheyennes set out to the northeast to look for the Paw- 
nees, and, after crossing the Platte River and following up Bird- 
wood Creek, found the Skidi Pawnees on the head of the South 
Loup, in what is now Nebraska. It was a great ceremonial gather- 



70 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ing of the whole Skidi tribe, for they were about to sacrifice a 
captive to the Morning Star. The Cheyennes attacked a party 
who were out buffalo hunting, beginning the fight before the 
ceremonies connected with the medicine arrows had been per- 
formed. 

At the beginning of the fight, when the two tribes were drawn 
up in line of battle, a Pawnee, who had long been ill and was 
discouraged and no longer cared to live, went out in front of the 
Pawnee line and sat down on the ground so that he might be 
killed at once. He was touched but not killed in the first charge 
the Cheyennes made. After that Bull, the Cheyenne who was 
carrying into the fight the medicine arrows, tied as usual near 
the head of a lance, rode up to the Pawnee and thrust at him with 
the lance. The Pawnee avoided the stroke, grasped the lance, 
and pulled it out of the hands of Bull, who rode away lamenting. 
The Pawnee, discovering the bundle tied to the lance, called to 
his tribesmen, who rushed up and took the arrows, though the 
Cheyennes made a brave charge to try to recover them. The 
Cheyennes gave up and went away. 

The Pawnees kept the arrows. Subsequently two of the four 
were recovered by the Cheyennes — one by a trick, the other by 
purchase from some band of the Brule Sioux. INIeantime, how- 
ever, the Cheyennes had made four new medicine arrows, but 
when they recovered two of the old ones they offered two of the 
new ones in sacrifice. The Cheyennes believe that the tribe's 
misfortunes — and they have been many — began when these ar- 
rows were captured. 

Fighting between the Cheyennes and the Pawnees continued 
up to the early seventies. By that time the Pawnees had become 
greatly reduced in numbers and efforts were being made to re- 
move them from their old home on the Loup Fork, in Nebraska, 
to the Indian Territory. This was done in 1874. A short time 
before they were moved, one or two brave Pawnees went down 
south to the Indian Territory and endeavored to make peace 
with a number of their ancient enemies, among them the Chey- 
ennes, Kiowas, Comanches, and Wichitas. The difficult task 
was finally accomplished, and since that time there have been no 
wars between these two tribes. 

At the treaty of 1851 no Pawnees seem to have been present. 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 71 

All the Cheyennes were there and Alights on the Cloud,^ often 
written Touching Cloud, or He Who Mounts the Clouds, was 
one of their most important men. Later a chief of the Pawnee 
Loups declared himself eager to make peace with all the enemies 
of the Pawnees, but Alights on the Cloud declined to accept the 
pipe offered to him. 

At the close of the treaty Alights on the Cloud, with two other 
men, White Antelope, who was killed at Sand Creek, and Little 
Chief, called by Father De Smet Red Skin, who died about 1858, 
went to Washington. The following year, after his return, Alights 
on the Cloud was killed in a battle with the Pawnees. 

Among certain plains Indian tribes the personal name Iron 
Shirt often occurs. This name refers to coats of mail brought 
to the southern United States by the Spaniards in very early days 
and which passed into the hands of the Indians and were worn by 
them. There are traditions of several cases of this kind. 

Armor of a certain sort was used by Indians of the Pacific 
Slope, but no armor of metal was ever known to the aborigines 
except as it came through the white men. Most of the traditions 
of these coats of mail are vague, yet of some we have definite 
knowledge. Fragments of metal shirts have been found in Kan- 
sas. Andreas Martinez, a trustworthy man, who has spent his 
life with the Kiowas, tells that they had two coats of mail, one 
of which, worn by a Kiowa in the fight with Kit Carson in 1864 
at Adobe Walls, was captured by the Ute scouts who were with 
Carson, the wearer having been killed. The other was buried 
with its owner. 

The Comanches seem to have had such coats of mail,^ for in 

* Wo Iv'sto'Is — Alights on the Cloud. 

^ Iron Jacket, the Comanche chief who owned the armor, wore it with a 
fine buckskin war shirt over it, and gained a great reputation among the 
Comanches and Kiowas. He was finally killed in a fight with the Texas 
Rangers at Antelope Hills on the Canadian, May 12, 1858. Captains Ford 
and Ross had about one hundred rangers and old Placido had about the same 
number of Tonkawas, Anadakos, Caddos, and Wacos. The fight was at 
Iron Jacket's village. He Uned his men up in front of the lodges, facing the 
enemy, and then rode out and rode up and down the line shooting arrows at 
Ford, Ross, and Placido. Everyone fired at him, but he seemed to have a 
charmed Ufe. At length Jim Pock-mark, the Anadako chief, succeeded in 
shooting Iron Jacket and the Comanches at once turned and fled, the troops 
pursuing them into the sand hills. This account does not say what became 
of the armor. Comprehensive History of Texas, p. 735. 



72 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the year 1858 the Caddos killed a Comanche who wore one. Mr. 
J. H. East, now or lately of Douglas, Arizona, while engaged with 
a party of cowboys in the year 1880 in clearing out a spring in 
Oldham County, Texas, found a coat of mail so badly rusted that 
it fell to pieces as it was taken from the water. Long before this 
La Salle reported having found a shirt of mail in the hands of 
Indians occupying villages on the Mississippi River in latitude 
twenty-eight or thirty degrees.^ 

In the year 1838, and perhaps much earlier, the Cheyennes 
possessed a suit of Spanish armor which appears to have been in 
the possession of the tribe, or of their allies, the Arapahoes, for 
thirty or more years before that. In 1838 it was owned by 
Medicine Water, of the Cheyennes, who wore it in the great fight 
with the Kiowas and Comanches. At the time of the Fitz- 
patrick treaty of 1851 it was worn by Alights on the Cloud. Clad 
in this iron shirt Alights on the Cloud had performed many mar- 
vellous feats. It is possible that the first time he wore it may 
have been in the year 1844 in a fight with Eastern Indian trappers. 
This took place on a stream known to the Cheyennes as Sav an 
i'yo he, or Shawnee Creek, a tributary of the Arickaree Fork of 
the Republican. 

At this time a large village of Sioux and Cheyennes was 
camped here, and their lodges pitched in the narrow stream bottom 
were more or less hidden from anyone who w^as approaching by 
high bluffs which rose on either side. 

One day in the spring a Cheyenne named Plover had been out 
hunting, and on his way back, and when he had almost reached the 
village, he saw some coyote puppies run into a hole. When he 
reached his lodge he said to his wife, Tall Woman: "To-morrow 
get your little brother and we will go out and catch some young 
coyotes. I have just seen several run into a hole. The boy is 
small and he can creep in with a rope and we can drag them out 
one by one, and will have some good food." The next day his 
w^ife called her little brother, and the three went out to the coyote 
den. The boy was just creeping into the hole when Plover, 
looking up, saw people coming over the hill toward them, carrying 
guns across their saddles. He saw that these were strangers — 
enemies — and dragged the boy out of the hole, and said to his 
» Margry, II, p. 198. 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 73 

wife and her brother : " You run to the village as fast as you can, 
and I will stay behind and fight off the strangers." Tall Woman 
and the little boy, afterward called Widower, reached the vil- 
lage and a little later Plover also came in, unhurt. The enemies 
could not see the village until they were almost immediately 
above it. The strangers were now recognized by the Cheyennes 
and Sioux as Shawnees or Delawares, tribes well known and 
friendly to the Cheyennes, who called both by the same name, 
Savane' — Shawnee. '^ The Cheyennes and Sioux were at peace 
with them and no one understood why they pursued the man, 
woman, and boy into the village and shot at them. 

When the leading Delawares saw the village they turned and 
rode back to the others. They were quite a company, and had 
many loaded pack-animals. They were a party of trappers re- 
turning from the mountains with their season's catch of fur. 

The Cheyennes all mounted their horses and rode out toward 
the Delawares, but Yellow Wolf, a Cheyenne chief, said to his 
people: " Wait; go slowly now; we are not at war with these people; 
let us try to make peace with them." 

"But," said one of the others, "they have just been shooting 
at this man. Why should we make peace?" 

"Well," said the chief, "wait. We will try to have the meet- 
ing peaceful." 

The Delawares drew back to a little ravine and drove their 
horses down into it, out of sight, and then came up on the prairie 
to fight on foot, and whenever the Cheyennes rode toward them, 
making peace signs, the Delawares shot at them. 

Still the Cheyennes kept trying to talk to the Delawares. 
They even took a little boy whose father was a Delaware and held 
him up, calling out his name to the Delawares, but these kept 
shooting. Four times the Chej'enne chiefs rode out toward 
them and tried to talk, but the Delawares would not let them come 
near them. 

At last old Medicine Water made up his mind that the Dela- 
wares wished to fight, and that it was useless to try to make 

^ These are commonly spoken of as Shawnees or Delawares ; no doubt 
they were the latter. The Shawnees seem to have been farming people who 
usually remained near home, while the Delawares were adventurers, trappers, 
travellers, and scouts. 



74 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

peace. He said to his son (nephew), AHghts on the Cloud: "Now, 
my son, these people insist on fighting. Here is the shirt. " And 
he handed it forth from where he held it, on the front of his 
saddle, and said: "Put it on and wrap that red cloth about you so 
as to hide the shirt, and then ride up close to them." Alights on 
the Cloud put on the shirt and wrapped a red strouding blanket 
about him. 

Meantime they had notified the Sioux to prepare to fight, 
and one brave Sioux, who had armed himself with two short guns 
and a hatchet in his belt, started on foot for one end of the Dela- 
ware line, running up the ravine in which the Delaware horses 
were and so keeping out of sight. 

One of the Cheyenne chiefs called out to his people: "These 
people want to fight; now let us get ready and kill them." And 
Medicine Water answered, saying: "My son, Alights on the 
Cloud, will empty their guns." 

Then, when everything was ready. Alights on the Cloud rode 
twice around the Delawares and close to them, and they all shot 
at him, emptying their guns as they tried to kill him, but the shots 
did not harm him. While they were shooting at him the brave 
Sioux on foot almost reached the end of the Delaware line. Now 
the Cheyennes all made a charge and the Delawares, having 
nothing in their guns, ran back and down into the ravine, where 
their horses were, but before they had time to load again the 
Cheyennes were upon them and killed them all. Some of them 
had the ramrods in their guns, the balls only half-way down the 
barrels. The Cheyennes took much plunder — bear, panther, 
beaver, and otter skins, and quantities of dried beaver tails. 

In this fight Porcupine Bear received the name Lame Shaw- 
nee. He had jumped in among the Delawares and was striking 
them right and left with his hatchet when a Delaware who was 
lying down shot him in the thigh. The Cheyennes were after- 
ward more or less alarmed by what they had done, fearing lest 
the act might be revenged. That summer they spoke of the 
matter to Fremont, who mentions the occurrence.^ 

^ Fremont Exploring Expedition, p. 288. (Washington, 1845.) A talk was 
held at Bent's Fort, August 9, 1845, between the Cheyennes and the Dela- 
wares who were with Fremont. See Lieutenant J. W. Abert, Senate Docu- 
ment 438, 29th Congress, 1st Session, p. 4. 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 75 

Alights on the Cloud was wearing the iron shirt when, in 1852, 
he was killed by the Pawnees, and the account of the battle and 
of his death has been given me by several men who took part in 
the fight. 

The expedition against the Pawnees was a very large one, 
made up of representatives of five tribes, there being two hundred 
and thirty Cheyennes, besides Arapahoes, Sioux, Apaches, and 
Kiowas. It was the practise of the Pawnees to make each 
year two great hunts on which they secured enough buffalo 
meat to last them for six months. One hunt was made in the 
winter, when the robes were good and the buffalo fat, and the 
other in summer. This battle took place during the summer 
hunt. 

This account is made up from statements by Bald-Faced Bull, 
Iron Shirt, and Kiowa Woman, all of whom were present : 

The Pawnee camp was big. All of them were there. The 
day before the fight they had seen a great dust rising and buffalo 
running, and knew that people were chasing them, but as yet 
had seen no one. They learned afterward that on this day some 
of the Kiowas had been fighting the Pawnees. x\ll night long 
buffalo were heard running, and late that night three or four 
parties of young men went out and then scouts were sent di- 
rectly ahead to look for the enemy. The Pawnee camp was found 
in the morning, but they had moved away, and when the main 
body of the Cheyennes came up and passed the camp they found 
in it dead people, and also some scalps tied to sticks standing in 
the ground. 

The morning of the fight a heavy mist lay over all the prairie. 
One could see only a short distance, but when the mist rose the 
scouts who had been sent on saw all about them small parties of 
Pawnees killing buffalo. The scouts sent word back that all 
should mount their horses and come on, and all did so. When 
the Cheyennes attacked and chased them the Pawnees ran. 
Alights on the Cloud overtook a Pawnee and touched him. 
White Horse and Big Hawk also struck enemies with their lances. 
They followed them almost into the camp, but when the Paw- 
nees in camp saw the enemy coming they jumped on their horses 
and ran to meet them, and the Cheyennes turned and ran. Alights 
on the Cloud was behind. He was dressed in iron clothing. 



76 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The Pawnees shot him with arrows, but they did not pierce the 
coat he wore. 

At last the Cheyennes turned to fight. AHghts on the Cloud 
was rushing up behind a Pawnee to strike him, and rode up on 
his right side, thinking that in this way the Pawnee could not 
shoot with the bow, but the Pawnee must have been left-handed, 
for he turned on his horse and shot Alights on the Cloud, and 
the arrow entered his right eye. When Ear Ring learned that 
his brother. Alights on the Cloud, had been killed he turned his 
horse and charged back among the Pawnees; jumped from his 
horse and took his brother in his arms and hugged and kissed 
him, saying: "My brother is dead; I, too, will die." He stayed 
there, rushing about, charging on the Pawnees, and shooting at 
them until he was killed. After killing Alights on the Cloud 
the Pawnees killed White Horse and then Big Hawk. Red Bird 
was killed and Black Wolf and Medicine Standing Up. 

Where these men were killed the Cheyennes made a stand and 
fought for a long time, for by this time a second party of Cheyennes 
had come up. Then another party of Cheyennes came and charged 
the Pawnees on the flank, and they began to yield and to run back 
to their camp, and those whose horses were wounded or were 
tired out fell behind and were killed — eight in all. The Pawnees 
had cut up all the Cheyennes that they had killed and taken the 
iron shirt, and now the Cheyennes got the bodies of the Pawnees 
and cut them up in the same way, unjointing their bones. The 
battleground was a wonderful sight — buffalo and horses and 
Pawnees and Cheyennes all scattered about. If the second 
party of Cheyennes had been a little later the Pawnees would 
have killed all the first party. The Pawnees were too strong 
for the second party also, but when the third party of Cheyennes 
came up they held the Pawnees, and at length began to drive 
them to their camp. 

After the Pawnees had retreated the Cheyennes gathered to- 
gether the fragments of the men they had lost and put the bodies 
together and placed them in a nearby ravine and left them there. 
Then they went back home, having lost the best men they had. 
It was a sad time. They all cried, and cut themselves with knives, 
and cut off their hair and the tails of their horses. It took the 
party five days to reach their home, travelling day and night. 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 77 

Alights on the Cloud was as handsome a man as you would 
ever see — a good man, kind-hearted, and very brave. 

The story that AHghts on the Cloud, in pursuit of a mounted 
Pawnee, rode up on his right hand so that the Pawnee could not 
use his bow sounds well and one would like to believe it, but it is 
not true. Pawnees who were in the fight state that Alights on 
the Cloud, whom they know as Iron Shirt, was killed by a certain 
Pita hau i'rat, who was the possessor of four sacred arrows, the 
history of which is as yet unknown. These arrows belonged in 
the Pita hau i'rat tribe of the Pawnees, and their ownership was 
handed down from father to son. They were not kept purely for 
ceremony, but were for use on certain special occasions, and it 
was the law handed down from one generation to another that 
when the arrows received or made by one man had been lost or 
shot away he might make a new set, but this new set he could not 
himself use but must pass on to his son, who might use them. 
If the man who had owned the four arrows did not make a new 
set to be used by his son it was his duty to teach the son how to 
make these, and they would belong to the son, who might use 
them during his life, but when the four had been used his power, 
so far as these sacred arrows was concerned, was ended. It was 
by such a sacred arrow that Iron Shirt was killed. 

Eagle Chief, born in 1833, told me the story of the killing of 
Alights on the Cloud which was witnessed, of course, by many 
Pawnees: 



At that time the Pawnees were living at Pahiik' ^ and in the spring 
started to hunt buffalo. They went a few days' journey up the Platte and 
then turned south to the Republican River, where they camped for only one 
night. The following day they were attacked by enemies and had a big 
fight. A Skidi named Ko'ka'ka was killed here, and his wife and child. The 
next day the Skidi went south along Beaver Creek, and here they met the 
other three tribes, the Tsau I' and Kit'ka hah ki, and Pita hau I'rat. Next 
morning all the men started out to hunt. Someone had seen buffalo and 
they went out to look for them. 

The next day about noon more enemies came down and attacked the 
Pawnees. They began fighting at noon and fought all the afternoon until 
about four o'clock. A man named La'hl ka — Wearing Horns — was killed 
here. In the same fight Crooked Hand had his leg broken. 

* Near Fremont, Nebraska. 



78 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

They camped here four days, and on the fifth moved, and started south- 
east and camped for the night. The next morning Sioux came down; they 
could recognize them by their talk. The next day they had another fight, 
which lasted all the afternoon. A Skidi chief was killed here — Le sa ta 
llt'ka — Dusty Chief. 

The next morning they moved camp again, and about sunrise the day 
after some Pawnees began to call out, saying: "The Sioux are coming down 
again." There was a big crowd of enemies. They rode off toward the east 
end of the camp, to try to drive off and capture the Pawnee horses, but the 
horses were frightened and ran back into the camp and the Pawnees got them. 
The fight began, and it must have been about noon when they killed a Kaw. 
Afterward they learned that it was the Comanche Indians they were fighting, 
and that with them there were some Kaws who had their heads shaved like 
the Osages. 

Very likely these may not have been Kaws, but Osages, for 
the Osages were allies of the Comanches. 

The camp moved again next morning, and went on southeast and made 
a long march, for they had been much alarmed by the successive attacks of 
all these different tribes. The next morning it was raining a little, and a 
party of Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Comanches, and Kiowas came down. They 
began fighting at eight o'clock and the fighting continued all through the 
forenoon. At this time the Pawnees were very many, but the four different 
tribes made a great war party. Their line of battle must have been a mile 
and a half long. They fought all through the forenoon and at noon stopped 
fighting for a time, but began again in the afternoon and presently someone 
came down the line who was a stranger of some sort. It was Iron Shirt. 

He rode one of the largest horses they had ever seen, a roan horse, and 
in his hand he held a sabre. I myself, was standing near the west end of 
the line and looking over saw the man coming from the east end, holding up 
the sabre in his hand, riding down the front of the line going toward the 
west. He rode close to where the Pawnees were, and as he passed them they 
gave back a little. When he reached the end of the Pawnee line this man 
did not go back the way he had come, but went around on the other side, 
where his own people were and went along in front of that line very slowly, 
and when he came to the other end of it he turned and made another charge 
in front of the Pawnee line, just as he had done before. He had nothing 
wrapped about him. He could not bend over, but sat straight up on his 
horse. His head was round and partly covered up with this iron, so that his 
hair could not be seen. [In other words, his long hair was under the iron shirt 
and not outside of it.] 

When he made the first charge down the line he did not try to run over 
people. The second time he started to make a charge as he had done before. 
As he was coming down the line the second time all the Pawnees on the east 
end made a backward movement, because this terrible man was coming. 



I 



WARS WITH THE PAWNEES 79 

There was one man, however, a warrior named Carrying the Shield in 
Front, Ta wi ta da hi' la sa, who did not move back. He stood there in the 
same place. Iron Shirt came toward him, thinking that he was going to kill 
Carrying the Shield in Front. Just as he came quite close to him Iron Shirt 
raised the hand in which he held the sabre, but just as he reached down to 
hit the Pawnee, Carrying the Shield in Front shot him with an arrow, and it 
struck Iron Shirt in the eye, and he fell off his horse in front of the Pawnee. 
After he was killed all the Pawnees rushed forward to where Carrying the 
Shield in Front was and cut Iron Shirt open. The Cheyennes made a fierce 
charge, trying to get their man, but they could do nothing. The Pawnees 
cut the shirt in small pieces and carried them away and scalped the man. 
The iron shirt reached to his knees and to his elbows, and covered him in front 
and around his neck. 

Carrying the Shield In Front has long been dead, but his son, 
known to the Pawnees as Tom Morgan, has told me the story of 
his father's deed: 

WTien Carrying the Shield in Front went out to the battle he took with 
him one of the sacred arrows — the white arrow. When he reached the 
battle-field men told him that this was the hardest day they had ever come 
to, and that among those who were attacking them was a man of wonderful 
power, whom the Pawnees could not shoot. 

Carrying the Shield in Front rode out in front of the line, dismounted, 
and let his horse go free. After a little Alights on the Cloud came toward 
him, and the Pawnees called out a warning to Carrying the Shield in Front, 
but he said: "Let him come on, and do you move away from me so that he 
may come close to me. If he possesses great power I shall not kill him. 
If he does not possess this great power perhaps I shall kill him." 

He took out his arrow and made ready to shoot, and began to pull his 
bow. He said to himself: "I shall let him come near tome." When Alights 
on the Cloud had come close, Carrying the Shield in Front was ready. He 
took no aim but loosed the arrow and it struck Alights on the Cloud in the 
right eye, and he fell from his horse. 



VIII 

WHEN THE POTAWATOMI HELPED THE 
KIT KA HAH KI 

1853 

The death of Alights on the Cloud, and of other brave and 
prominent men in the fight with the Pawnees, in 1852, was a great 
misfortune to the Cheyennes. Alights on the Cloud was kindly, 
generous, brave, and good-hearted — a man of great popularity. 
Moreover, his feats of daring, while protected by the iron shirt, 
had given to the people generally an impression that he possessed 
spiritual power — was invulnerable. His death deeply stirred the 
whole tribe, and at once there was talk of trying to avenge him. 
This was discussed in every camp, yet not until the end of the 
winter were efforts made to bring together the tribe for an ex- 
pedition against the Pawnees. 

In the spring of 1853 Little Robe,^ according to the Northern 
Cheyennes, or Yellow Nose or Crow Indian,^ according to the 
Southern Cheyennes, carried the pipe about to the various camps 
of the Cheyennes. He found the main village at the mouth of 
Beaver Creek on the South Platte. There a large lodge was set 
up as a meeting-place for each of the soldier bands. To each 
such place came the relations of those killed the year before to 
implore the soldier bands to take pity on them and to help to 
revenge their injuries. These mourners brought many presents 
to the Dog Soldiers, and it is said that each Dog Soldier received 
seven horses. 

The messenger went also to the Burnt Thigh Sioux, Arapahoes, 
Kiowas, and Apaches, and offered them the pipe trying to persuade 
these tribes to unite with the Cheyennes against the Pawnees 
and destroy them. The Crows also were invited to join them, 

1 Ski' 6 mah", Little Robe. « q> j tan, Crow Indian. 

80 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 81 

and some Crows accepted. ^ A Cheyenne presented a fine horse 
to the Crow chief, who mounted it and rode about the camp 
singing a song in praise of the generosity of the donor. How- 
ever, a little later the Crows and some of the Sioux turned back 
and left them. 

The difi'erent tribes assembled on the headwaters of the Re- 
publican River and there the Cheyennes held their medicine- 
lodge. The Kit Fox Soldiers had charge of the ceremonies and 
were obliged to suffer as the dancers were suffering, for it is the 
law that the soldier society which is in charge of this ceremony 
must endure as the dancers endure — must go without food and 
drink during the period of the ceremony. 

On the last day of the ceremony Wood^ and Two Thighs,' 
chiefs of the Fox Soldier band, talked with one another about 
finding out where the Pawnees were. 

Wood said: "Now, this is the last day of the dance; we are 
not far from the country of the Pawnees, and it is time for us to 
choose scouts and send them out to find the Pawnee camp." 

Two Thighs agreed and they consulted as to whom they should 
choose. One of them said : " There is Mad Wolf* over there. He 
is pretty cunning; let us choose him for one." 

The Fox Soldiers were sitting in a row under their shade as 
was the custom, and in front of the row they spread down a blan- 
ket and then Wood and Two Thighs set out to look for Mad Wolf. 

It was etiquette that a man should not appear anxious to 
receive the honor of being chosen to go as a scout, but that when 
called he should hang back, declare that he did not want to go, 
and even resist and try to escape from those who were bringing 
him to the place where he was to be told of the service he must 
perform. 

The two men found Mad Wolf and, grasping his arms, they 
hurried him up to the shade where the Fox Soldiers were sitting 
and told him to be seated on the blanket, facing the row of Fox 
Soldiers. They said to him: "Sit here now for a time, until we 
bring up those who are to sit by you." 

} The treaty of 1851 was still respected, therefore, by the Crows and the 
Cheyennes. 

2 Ka mahk'. Wood. 3 NIsh' i no mah", Two Thighs. 

« Hahk' 6 nl' or Mlv'a w6 nih", Mad Wolf, bom 1825, died 1905. 



82 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

They next went after War Bonnet^ and, finding him in his 
lodge, brought him up to the Fox Soldiers and made him sit down 
on the blanket by Mad Wolf. Then they brought Tall Bull,^ 
then Starving Elk,^ a Northern Cheyenne, and Little Wolf.* 

Then Wood and Two Thighs consulted and said: "Now let 
us get Yellow Bear, of the Arapahoes, and bring him up. They 
did so and afterward they chose Dirt on the Nose from among the 
Kiowas. These seven men were sitting in a row in front of the 
Fox Soldiers. 

When Wood had taken his place among the Fox Soldiers, he 
spoke to these men and said: "Now, my friends, you know what 
the feeling is in this camp; that we want to find the enemy. You 
men have been chosen for this purpose because we think that you 
are good men, and we want you to go ahead and to do your best. 
You must remember that you are not going out to count coups, 
nor to take scalps nor horses, but are going out to find where 
the enemy is, and then to bring back the news to the camp. I 
intend to go along with you to see that you do what you are told. 
You can go now and get your horses and start on down the river. 
I will go ahead and will stop at a certain place, where we will all 
meet late this afternoon." 

Thus dismissed, the scouts went off to get their horses, and 
Wood saddled his horse and set out down the river. He travelled 
almost all day, but late in the afternoon went up on a hill and 
sat there, and as the scouts came along one by one they joined 
him. 

Following along with the scouts were two or three young men 
who had not been ordered out. When they appeared Wood said : 
"Well, we cannot send them back; let them go along. Let us 
now go down to the river and take a bath and start in the cool 
of the evening and travel at night." 

They went down to the river and all went in swimming. At 
this place there were great multitudes of buffalo. It was the 
month of June, and the bulls were fighting and grunting and run- 
ning about, and many that had been in the timber and thick brush 

1 Ka ka yu'I si nih', War Bonnet. 
» HStu'a 6 hkH'ash talt, Tall Bull. 
' Mohk'sta'wo ums'ts, Starving Elk. 
* Oh'kQm hka'kit, Little Wolf. 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 83 

had grape-vines and branches twisted about their horns, where 
they had been shaking their heads in the thick brush. Tall 
Bull used to tell of one big bull that came out of the brush, his 
head all wrapped in grape-vines and dragging long strings of 
them behind him. He charged the Cheyennes and scattered them. 

After the Cheyennes had finished their bath, Tall Bull mounted 
his horse and rode out a little way into the timber to a herd of 
buffalo coming down to water and killed a fat cow. They cut 
out the choice pieces and tied them on their horses, and Wood 
said: "We will travel along and stop a little further down the 
stream and roast the meat." Not long afterward they stopped 
and ate and then travelled on through most of the night, and then 
stopped again and lay down to rest for a while, but before morn- 
ing went on again and travelled through the day until afternoon. 
Then as they were going along some one saw wolves running away 
from a place on the prairie and riding up there they found the 
freshly killed carcass of a buffalo and in it an arrow which they 
recognized as Pawnee. Then as they looked about under the 
hill and down the valley they could see, scattered here and there, 
carcasses and skeletons where many buffalo had been killed. 

Presently, Tall Bull and War Bonnet rode up to the top of 
the hill and peered over, and when they returned to those who 
were gathered about the buffalo carcass, looking at it and at the 
arrow, they said: "We saw two or three persons going over that 
hill over there; probably the camp is down in the valley below it." 

"Very well," said Wood, "we have done what we came to do; 
it is not necessary to go farther. Look at these fresh carcasses 
all about us. Let us now return to the village and report." 

They rode off a little way out of sight of the place and stopped 
by a hill to rest. When they stopped. Yellow Bear, the Arapaho, 
who was a Dog Soldier of the Arapahoes, got on his horse and began 
to ride around in a circle, singing his war songs and saying that 
they ought not now to go back to the village without taking a 
scalp to show, but Wood went up to him and caught hold of his 
horse and stopped it and said: "My friend, we came out to find 
the enemy and then to go back and report to the village. We 
did not come out to take scalps nor to count coups. Let us do 
what we came to do and nothing else." They set out for the 
camp and rode all night, stopping just before daylight to lie down 



84 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and take a little rest, but not unsaddling their horses. Then 
they went on again. 

About noon Yellow Bear asked them if they were hungry, 
and when they said they were, he replied: "I will go down then 
and kill a cow." He did so, and they went to the stream and there 
ate. 

Along about the middle of the afternoon, as they were riding 
fast toward the village, a young man who had been out hunting 
met them, and they sent him ahead as a messenger to notify the 
Cheyenne camp that they were coming. He went ahead and 
when he reached the camp the scouts from their position on the 
prairie saw people running about, gathering up their horses; a big 
dust was rising. 

Wood said to War Bonnet: "You go on now and notify the 
camp and let the others follow you. I will come last and give 
them the news." So the seven scouts rode on in single file. War 
Bonnet in the lead and Wood far behind. As they rode, they 
howled now and then like wolves, and then stopped and turned 
their heads from side to side. 

Meantime in the camp there was great bustle and prepara- 
tion. Men were throwing the saddles on their horses; getting out 
their shields; painting their faces; arranging their war medicines; 
and in the middle of the camp circle heaping up the great pile of 
buffalo-chips on which coup was to be counted. By the time the 
scouts had come near to the camp many of the young men had 
mounted their horses and were riding about singing their war 
songs, tossing up their shields in the air, and preparing to count 
coup on the pile of buffalo-chips, while the women and children 
stood at one side looking on. 

When War Bonnet reached the camp, the chiefs asked him 
what news he brought, and he replied: "My friend, who is coming 
behind, will tell you that;" and he and the other scouts rode 
around behind the chiefs and formed in line. Then Wood came 
in and reported just what they had seen and done. 

Soon after this the crier went about the camp calling on all 
the soldier societies to get together, and have a ceremonial march 
about the village. They must first paint their horses and array 
themselves as if for war, and then come together on a hill just 
south of the opening of the camp circle. After a time they gath- 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 85 

ered there the Crooked Lances, the Bow Strings, the Dog Sol- 
diers, the Fox Soldiers, and the other societies. 

The chief had told them which society was to lead off, and the 
chief of this society called out the names of two brave men, and 
said: "These two men are to lead." Then he called out the names 
of two other brave men, and said : " You two are to bring up the 
rear." So it was done with each society, and then the first one 
started off, the two men leading and the others in single file and 
two men bringing up the rear. A hundred yards behind them 
followed another society, and behind that another, and so on until 
all were marching. The leading society marched to the opening 
of the circle, then turned to the left, entered, marched around 
the circle behind the lodge where the arrows were kept, and the 
lodge where the hat was kept, keeping on until they reached the 
opening of the circle. They passed through that opening and, 
turning to the left, marched back outside of the circle. All the 
societies followed. All were singing their war songs and their 
different society songs. The women were shouting the war cry. 

After they had passed around outside the circle to the point 
from which they started they dismounted, took off their shields 
and war bonnets and put them back in their cases and put the 
covers on their lances and, carrying these things in their arms, 
returned to their lodges. Before they could go into the lodges 
it was necessary that the sacred paint should be washed off the 
horses, and some old man or boy was asked to take each animal 
down to the stream and wash off the paint before turning him 
loose. It was against the custom for a horse to be turned loose 
while still painted with this spiritual paint. In returning to their 
lodges the young men did not go around and enter the opening 
of the circle, but passed directly through the circle of the lodges. 

The next day the camp moved on down the stream, and that 
afternoon after camp had been made the chiefs gathered in the 
centre of the circle and told the crier to call out the names of cer- 
tain men who that night should go out and look for the Pawnee 
camp. They directed him to call Tall Bull and War Bonnet, 
because these two had seen the enemy on the previous scout. 
Then they called the names of four other men, one of whom was 
Wolf Face. On this occasion there was no ceremony of bring- 
ing the young men up before the soldiers. Their names were 



86 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

called and they were ordered to go. Tall Bull and Wolf Face 
started in the afternoon and told the others to look for them at a 
certain place farther down the stream. Late in the afternoon 
they were joined by the others. They rode on down the stream 
and travelled most of the night, sleeping a little toward morning, 
and then starting on and travelling until the heat of the day, 
when they stopped. 

In the afternoon they went on again and before very long came 
to the hill from which Tall Bull had seen the Pawnees. He took 
his men up there, and pointed over to where he had seen them 
pass out of sight. They all rode over to that hill and when they 
looked over it could see down below in the creek valley where a 
big camp had been, but now there was no camp there. They 
went down to the place and looked it over. It was a big camp; 
there were many fires. It seemed as if the Pawnees had been 
camped there killing buffalo for a long time. There were still 
many dogs in the camp. On one side was a well-beaten trail 
which led to another camp two hundred yards off where a number 
of people had been camped, not in lodges but in shelters made of 
willows bent over, after the fashion of a sweat-house. 

To the southwest a broad trail led off over a hill to the valley 
of another stream beyond, and the scouts followed this trail for 
some distance and then stopped to rest. After a time, when the 
sun got low. Tall Bull said to them: "Well, come on; let us saddle 
up and go." They did so and followed the trail, going very slowly 
and cautiously. They were constantly looking and listening, 
always expecting to see something ahead of them. Whenever 
they came near the top of a hill they turned off to one side away 
from the trail, and lifted their heads and peeped over the hill 
with great care. After a time it grew dark, and they went a 
little faster, but still very carefully, stopping every few minutes 
to look and to listen, and sometimes getting off and putting their 
heads close to the ground to see if they could hear anything. 

During one of these stops dogs were heard barking, and some 
one said, "Ah, there is the village," but the sound was a long way 
off. They went on farther, and at length heard the beating of 
drums. Presently they came upon a pony feeding by the trail, 
but they passed it by and went on, and at last saw and heard the 
Pawnee village which was situated between the forks of a creek. 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 87 

Before they reached the stream Tall Bull said: "Let us stop 
here and tie our horses close together in this brush so we shall 
know where they are, and they will not be calling to each other. 
Then we will separate and go close to the camp and look into it." 

They did this. Tall Bull and Wolf Face left the others and, 
getting into the stream bed above the village, crept down to the 
camp and then raising their heads above the bank looked into it. 
There they saw a great fire blazing in the middle of a circle and 
all about the fire Pawnee men, women, and children were dancing, 
and off to one side they could see men standing who they knew, 
by the arms they carried and by their hats with feathers tied in 
them, were Shawnees or Delawares. The two Cheyennes were 
so close to the Pawnees that they could plainly recognize their 
features. After they had watched them for a little while Tall 
Bull and Wolf Face went back to the horses, and then the other 
men went down and watched the dancers. 

After these men had come back Tall Bull proposed that the 
Cheyennes, one at a time, should put their blankets about them 
and enter the camp and mingle with the Pawnees. His idea was 
to go into the camp and jostle and touch some of the Pawnees, 
and in that way to count coups, but one of the others who was 
with them said: "No, we had better not do that. We were not 
sent here to count coups or to mingle with these people, but to 
find the camp. Let us go back." 

They did so, mounting their horses and striking off northwest 
across the country to get to the Republican River, near where the 
village was, for before leaving they had been told where the peo- 
ple would camp. They travelled all night, and about noon next 
day reached the camp. 

The next day the Cheyenne village moved on down the stream 
to another camp. Here the women put up their lodges and erected 
platforms on w^hich to keep their goods out of reach of the wolves 
and coyotes; and that night the whole village started for the 
Pawnee camp. The men were riding ahead and the women 
followed, while the children were carried in travois. That night 
they stopped on the divide, only a short distance from where the 
Pawnee camp had been seen by Tall Bull and Wolf Face. 

Next morning they started and, when they had come within 
four or five miles of where the camp had been seen, the women and 



88 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

children all stopped behind a big hill, and the men rode off a little 
in front and began to unwrap their medicines. Then the cere- 
monies were gone through with. The sacred hat (is'si wun) was 
placed on the ground on a bed of stems of the sage, and an arrow 
was taken out from the arrow bundle and given to Wooden Leg, 
who, standing in front of the line, pointed it toward the enemy, 
singing the arrow song and dancing in time to the singing, and, as 
he sang and danced, thrusting the point of the arrow toward the 
enemy. As he sang and danced all the men in the lines stamped 
their feet in time to the song and made motions with their weapons 
or shields toward the enemy, in time to the motions which Wooden 
Leg was making with the arrow, and when Wooden Leg had 
finished the fourth song all the young men whooped. Then 
Wooden Leg walked back to the keeper of the arrows, who was 
Rock Forehead, 1 and passed him the arrow, feather toward him, 
to put back into the bundle. 

Meantime Long Chin had ridden up to the keeper of the hat, 
and told him that he would wear it into the battle. The hat 
keeper gave it to him, but as Long Chin was tying the string 
which passed under his chin the string broke. Then Long Chin 
publicly pledged himself to give a woman to be passed on the 
prairie, and he tied the string to the hat and under his chin. 
Black Kettle^ carried the arrows into the fight tied to his lance. 

While these ceremonies were going on Big Head and his party, 
eight in all, had slipped off to one side and ridden away toward 
the Pawnees, intending to be the first to count a coup and take a 
scalp. This action, of course, was against the law and broke 
the medicine of the arrows and the hat, because until the cere- 
monies in connection with these mysteries had been completed, 
it was not permitted for any one to pass beyond the hat or the 
arrows toward the enemy. 

Now the whole tribe, men first and women following, charged 
toward the camp which Tall Bull and Wolf Face had seen, but 
when they reached the place there was no camp there. The 
Pawnees had moved, and there was nothing to see except the ashes 
of their fires. 

1 Rock Forehead, Ho ho nai'vi uhk'tftn uhk". 

^ Some informants contend that White Powder and not Black Kettle 
carried the arrows on this occasion. 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 89 

The Cheyennes charged up the stream and turned about and 
charged back, looking everywhere for the enemy, but not finding 
them. 

Presently men on horseback were seen coming and the Chey- 
ennes all charged toward them, thinking that they were Pawnees, 
but when they got closer they saw Big Head waving a scalp, and 
he said to them: "The camp is right over the hill. Go slowly, 
for there are many of them." 

The Cheyennes charged over the hill and there down in the 
valley saw a big camp of Pawnees. They had had warning of the 
coming of this great party, and all their women and children and 
horses were down in the stream protected by its banks, while the 
men were ranged along the edge of the bank to do the fighting. 
Some of the Pawnees had gone out early and from a high hill 
had seen the allied tribes coming a long way off. They had brought 
the news back to the camp, and the Pawnees had made ready 
to fight behind the breastworks formed by the bank of the 
stream. 

The Cheyennes charged down again and again toward the 
Pawnees, but the Pawnees would not come out and show them- 
selves. They fought cautiously. So the fight went on almost 
all day with little result, but about the middle of the afternoon 
the Cheyennes saw a number of men coming over the hill. The 
Cheyennes were getting tired now and were about ready to leave 
the Pawnees, when they saw these men who carried long guns, 
which glistened in the sun. They knew that these must be the 
Shawnees that had been seen in the camp by Tall Bull. 

When they saw the Savane' coming the Kiowa said to the 
Cheyennes: "We know those people; wait, we will talk to them." 
But the Savane' did not wait for any talk and the first man killed 
was a Kiowa. The Cheyennes and their allies ran, and the 
Savane' followed them for quite a long distance. Then the 
Cheyennes and the others charged back and chased the Savane' 
back a little, and the Savane' charged and chased the Cheyennes 
back. The Savane' followed them, and at last the Cheyennes 
stopped and the Savane' stopped and two of the Savane' dis- 
mounted. The Cheyennes charged back and killed these two. 
Satanta, the Kiowa, lanced one from his horse and Good Bear, 
Cheyenne, shot another. Here there were killed seventeen Chey- 



90 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ennes and four Arapahoes, and how many of other tribes they do 
not know. After this the Cheyennes, who by this time were 
tired of fighting, drew away and left the Pawnees. 

The Cheyennes do not know how the Potawatomies learned 
that a fight was in progress. Some think that early in the fight 
a Pawnee carried word to the Shawnees, who had left the Pawnee 
camp only that morning, that his people were surrounded. At 
all events, the arrival of the eastern Indians ended the battle. 

While the Cheyennes believe that this camp was that of the 
whole Pawnee nation, as a matter of fact it was that of only one 
tribe, the Kit'ka hahki. In those days the Pawnee tribes were 
much larger than in later times. 

Some time before this, on their way to the buffalo country, the 
Kit'ka hahki had encountered a company of hunters from the Pot- 
awatomi mission, chiefly Potawatomi but with some Sac and 
Foxes. These Indians, whose intercourse with the whites had 
been considerable, had adopted many white customs, wore civ- 
ilized clothing to some extent, and were for the most part armed 
with excellent rifles, just those in fact which the white hunters of 
the prairie carried. 

The plains tribes of that day did not differentiate between the 
various eastern tribes that had recently moved out onto the 
border of the prairie, but called them all by a single name, includ- 
ing under the common name Savane'^ Delawares, Shawnees, Pot- 
awatomi, Sac and Foxes, and Iroquois. 

The Potawatomi and the Pawnee camps travelled and hunted 
together for a long time, and had only just separated on the day 
when the allied tribes attacked the Kit'ka hahki village. The 
Pawnee account of the end of this battle is as follows: 

The Kit'ka hahki, under Sky Chief, w^re moving up the Re- 
publican River,^ and the Potawatomi were camped with them. 
All the women and children were along. The two camps had 
been together for some time, but one day they talked about 
separating and going in different directions. The Potawatomi 

' Presumably an attempt to reproduce the English word Shawnee. 

* Republican River, Cheyenne, Ma ho he va'o he", Red Shield (Society) 
River; Pawnee, Kl'ra ru tah, Manure River (klts'ti and lit'iit ti, dung; or per- 
haps ra'ru tah, it is filthy). So called because of the enormous numbers of 
buffalo which resorted to it, polluting the waters. 



WHEN POTAWATOMI HELPED KIT KA HAH KI 91 

moved off to another stream and the Pawnees started up the 
river. Just as the Pawnees got to the hills they saw the enemy 
coming, and in a short time the enemy surrounded them. 

Sky Chief owned a mule which one of the Potawatomi wanted 
and for which he had offered Sky Chief a horse, but at the time 
Sky Chief did not wish to trade. Nevertheless, after the camps 
had separated, Sky Chief determined that he would let the Pot- 
awatomi have his mule, and, mounting the animal, set out to 
overtake the Potawatomi and make the trade. He had gone 
some little distance when, looking back, he saw the enemy coming 
to attack the Kit'ka hahki camp. He was tempted to go back 
and fight for his people, but he knew he ought to keep on and go 
to the Potawatomi to bring aid. When he reached the Pota- 
watomi village he said to them: "I w^ant you to come and help 
my people; the enemy are killing them." 

The chief of the Potawatomi chose twenty of his men who had 
good rifles and said : " Now, do you men come with me ; we must 
go over there where they are fighting." 

When they reached the battle-ground, he directed his men to 
get ready to fight, saying to them : " I want half of you to fire and 
then to fall back and load and let the others fire. When you 
shoot, shoot to kill." 

The Potawatomi were accustomed to shooting from horse- 
back. Their horses were trained to stand still when they were 
shooting, and each Potawatomi carried two long sticks, the ends 
of which he rested on the ground, crossing the two at the top and 
resting his rifle in the fork thus formed. This enabled them to 
shoot with great accuracy, and these Savane' had the reputation 
among the whites and Indians alike of being excellent rifle- 
shots. 

When the Cheyennes saw these other people coming they 
made a charge, but instead of running, ten of the Potawatomi 
stopped their horses and fired and each shot counted, and when 
the first ten men fell back the other ten came forward ready to 
shoot, and then the Cheyennes fell back. The Potawatomi went 
forward and when they reached the place where the men lay 
whom they had killed they opened their breasts, took out their 
hearts and put them in their bullet-pouches and then, thrusting 
their hands into the breasts of these enemies, smeared the blood 



92 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

across their faces. These human hearts were to be used to make 
a strong medicine to be put on their bullets, so that when shoot- 
ing they should not miss. When the Cheyennes saw what they 
were doing they all turned and ran away. 



IX 

BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 

To the plains Indians of early days the terms "stranger" and 
"enemy" were almost synonymous. A man or a small party not 
recognized was likely to be attacked without warning, and cases 
have occurred where a war party has been attacked by another 
party of its own tribe and men killed and wounded before the 
fighters recognized each other. With the trappers, fur traders, 
and occasional explorers or travellers whom the Indians met in 
early days they were usually on friendly terms, yet sometimes 
collisions took place. Between 1840 and 1850 many small fights 
occurred. The Frapp battle,^ about which little is known, in 
which the Cheyennes and Sioux were supposed to be the aggres- 
sors was one of these. Ruxton speaks of the hostility of the 
Arapahoes in 1846-7, and during the summer of 1847 the Kiowas, 
Apaches, Pawnees, and Comanches were reported to have been 
at war with the whites, and to have done much injury .^ Yet 
there was no general movement against the invaders, and the 
occasional killing of white men or the running off of live stock 
was not the act of the tribes but of small parties of young men 
who, when opportunity offered, were unable to resist the tempta- 
tion to capture a few animals or to count a coup. 

In the winter of 1847 the Kiowas, Apaches, and Comanches 
endeavored to induce the Cheyennes and Arapahoes to join in a 
general movement against the whites, but Lieutenant-Colonel 
Gilpin — afterward governor of Colorado — marched two companies 
of cavalry into the middle of the Cheyenne and Arapaho villages 
and camped there.^ They did not join the alliance. 

If the tribes were not generally hostile to the white men it 
was not because they lacked cause of complaint against them. 

1 Fremont Memoirs, p. 113. Stanshury, pp. 239, 240. 
^ Massacres of the Mountains, p. 231. 
' Bancroft, History of Colorado, p. 414. 
93 



94 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Lawless white men roved over the plains, killing the game, often 
treating the Indians with the utmost arrogance, and bringing 
disease and liquor among them. It was the trader Gantt who 
brought their first whiskey to the Cheyennes. As they disliked 
its taste, he is said to have mixed sugar with it, and in this manner 
to have induced them to drink. In 1832 he built a post on the 
Arkansas,^ possibly the one near the mouth of Fountain Creek 
mentioned by Dodge in 1835 as then abandoned, and traded 
whiskey to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Less than five years 
later the tribe was reported "a nation of drunkards," ^ and, whether 
this was true or not, it is certain that the habit had taken strong 
hold on them. 

In 1835 Colonel Dodge came to Bent's Fort and found some 
Mexicans camped on the south bank of the river — in Mexican 
territory and therefore out of reach of the L^nited States author- 
ities — who were trading whiskey to the Cheyennes. 

It has already been said that a year or two later when the news 
of the killing of the company of Bow String soldiers by the 
Kiowas was received by the Cheyennes, Porcupine Bear, the Dog 
Soldier chief, while drunk stabbed Little Creek, for which deed he 
and his relatives were outlawed. Such tragedies were of daily 
occurrence during the trading season on the Platte; brothers 
killed their brothers in drunken rage; men mounted and raced 
their horses wildly over the plains, often falling and breaking their 
necks; the people traded everything they had — horses, weapons, 
clothing — for drink. Similar conditions prevailed among the In- 
dians wherever the white trader with his alcohol had penetrated.^ 

The year 1841 was a turning-point in the history of the plains 
tribes, for that season the first emigrant train passed up the 
Platte on its way to Oregon. Hitherto the fur men had been 
almost the only ones who crossed the northern plains, and they 
were few in number; but from this year on an annually increasing 
swarm of emigrants poured up the Platte. The Indians, at first 

1 Sage, Rocky Mountain Life, 1846, pp. 247, 248. 

"^ Merrill, Nebraska Historical Society Publications, vol. IV, p. 181. (The 
date is April 14, 1837.) 

2 New Light on the Northwest, Journals of Alexander Henry and David 
Thompson, by Elliot Coues. (New York, 1897.) Larpenteur, Forty Years a 
Fur Trader. 



BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 95 

astonished, soon became alarmed and with good reason. The 
emigrants cut down and wasted the scant supply of wood along 
the road; their herds of oxen, horses, and mules gnawed the bot- 
toms bare of grass; the buffalo were shot down and left to rot on 
the ground and, worse still, the herds were frightened from the 
country. In 1835 the Ogallala were hunting at the forks of the 
Platte. Ten years later, to get meat they were obliged to go to 
the Laramie plains and among the mountains in hostile Snake 
country. They went with no good will toward the emigrants 
who had driven away the buffalo. The Indians were in a bad 
temper and many of the emigrant trains that passed up the Platte 
met w^ith small misadventures. Those who did not were always 
fearing trouble of this kind. 

No sooner had they reached Oregon than they began to write 
home to the States. Their complaints about the Indians were 
printed in the newspapers; they petitioned Congress for the pro- 
tection of the "emigrant road," and as early as 1845 had given 
all the plains tribes a thoroughly bad reputation in the East. 
In that year Colonel Kearny, guided by Fitzpatrick, marched up 
the Platte to hold talks with the Indians, and to open the road 
and try to make the Indians treat the white men with more con- 
sideration. He held councils with the Sioux, Cheyennes, and 
Arapahoes and for a time things seemed to improve. Following 
Kearny's trip, two posts, Fort Laramie and Fort Kearny, were 
established in 1849.^ In that year along the Platte cholera car- 
ried off many Indians. 

1 Fort Kearny was on the Platte just at the upper end of Grand Island, 
191 miles from Omaha and 253 miles from Atchison, Kansas; Fort Laramie 
on the North Platte at the mouth of Laramie River, 573 miles from Omaha 
and 635 miles from Atchison, Kansas. For some years before 1846 the gov- 
ernment had been urged to estabhsh posts to protect the Oregon trail and 
settlers in Oregon, and this was about to be done when the Mexican War 
came on. Congress was asked for permission to raise a mounted rifle regi- 
ment to do this work, and such a force was authorized, but as soon as re- 
cruited the War Department sent it to Mexico. In the meantime, in 1847 or 

1848, a small company of soldiers was sent up the Missouri River and built 
a smaU post, "old Fort Kearny," on the site of the present Nebraska City. 
This post was abandoned late in 1848, and a new one begun by the same 
small body of troops at Grand Island. This new post was named Fort 
Kearny in the last days of 1848, and was put in actual use in the spring of 

1849. It was not really garrisoned until the spring of that year. Watkins, 
History of Fort Kearny, Nebraska State Historical Society, vol. XVI, p. 227. 



96 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Meantime the condition of the tribes was constantly becoming 
worse. Food was harder to procure; they were often hungry, 
and no amount of advice makes much impression on an empty 
stomach. Every year the Indians' complaints against the emi- 
grants grew more bitter, and each year the emigrants complained 
more loudly against the Indians. 

The hostility that was thus growing up between Indians and 
white men was racial. To the white man an Indian was an 
Indian, and the white man who had been robbed or threatened 
by an Indian felt himself justified in taking vengeance on the 
next Indian that he saw, without regard to whether he had been 
injured by that man or by men of that tribe. In the same way 
if an Indian had been killed by a white man the members of his 
tribe were ready to revenge the injury on the next white man that 
came along. Thus it came about that persons innocent of any 
fault were constantly punished for the harm done by one of their 
race. The guilty never suffered. As a result of this feeling nei- 
ther Indians nor white men felt that they could trust one of the 
opposite race, and each held the other always in suspicion. 

Treaty of 1851 

In the summer of 1851 a famous council was held on Horse 
Creek, thirty-five miles east of Fort Laramie, with a number of 
plains Indian tribes to promote peace between the tribes and be- 
tween Indians and white people. 

This treaty, commonly called the Big treaty, is known also 
as the Fort Laramie treaty, the Horse Creek treaty, or the 
Fitzpatrick treaty.^ It is still remembered by old Indians. 
There were present Sioux, Assiniboines, Gros Ventres, Crows, 
Shoshoni, Arikaras, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, and perhaps 
some Mandans. The total number camped in the various vil- 
lages was estimated at from eight to twelve thousand. Many 
of the tribes had never before met except in battle. 

Father De Smet^ gives a long description of the meeting and 

1 Report Commissioner Indian Affairs, 1851, pp. 60, 70. D. D. Mitchell, 
Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the north, and Thomas Fitzpatrick — of 
the broken hand — then Indian Agent for the Upper Platte Agency, report 
on the matter with extreme brevity. 

2 History of Western Missioyis and Missionaries, by Rev. P. J. De Smet, 
S. J., p. 101 et seq. (New York, P. J. Kemiedy.) 



BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 97 

emphasizes its harmony, and the union and amity that appeared 
to exist among tribes that had long been hostile. He speaks with 
enthusiasm of the politeness and evidences of kindly feeling to 
each other shown by the Indians during their stay in the camp, 
and closes with bright anticipations of an era of peace on the 
plains.^ 

Fight with the Sac and Fox, 1854 

In the battle with the Pawnees in the summer of 1853 a number 
of Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches were killed. This led 
to a war journey by the allied tribes in 1854, directed against the 
eastern or immigrant Indians who had been moved west by the 
government. 

According to Kiowa accounts the expedition was undertaken 
at the request of a Kiowa to seek revenge for a brother killed by 
the Pawnees the year before. The Cheyennes had injuries of 
their own to revenge, and so had the Comanches, for the battle 
of 1853 had inflicted severe losses on all three of the allied tribes. 
Cheyenne accounts indicate that the expedition was directed 
chiefly against the eastern Indians, no doubt in revenge for the 
assistance which they had given the Pawnees in the battle of 1853. 

The Cheyennes say that in that fight two important men, a 
Kiowa and a Comanche, had fallen, and their tribesmen felt that 
these deaths must be avenged. Soon after the Pawnee fight, 
therefore, the Kiowa and Comanche chiefs, carrying the pipe, set 
out to ask the assistance of their friends in avenging their dead. 
They came to the Cheyenne camp and rode into it, wailing and 
mourning, and sat down in the centre of the camp circle. A 
large council lodge was erected, in which the visiting chiefs were 
received and a feast was set before them. The Cheyenne chiefs 
and head men sat around the inside of the lodge in a circle, and 
the Comanches and Kiowas passed around the circle and offered 
the pipe to the lips of each Cheyenne. If the man to whom the 
pipe was offered accepted it and drew four whiffs he promised by 
this act to aid the visitors in their expedition. Old Whirlwind 
smoked the pipe, as did also his father-in-law, Bad Face,^ and a 

1 Indian Land Cessions in the United States, Royce, B. A. Eth., 18th Ann., 
p. 786. The treaties were not ratified by Congress. 

' Ugly Face, also known as Old Bark. His real name was Feathered Bear. 



98 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

number of others. After the pipe had been offered the feast was 
eaten. Many men among the Cheyennes declined to smoke, 
and the number who joined the war party was not large. The 
Kiowas and Comanches went about from camp to camp of the 
tribes with which they were on friendly terms offering the pipe 
and asking for help. Of the Arapahoes, Little Raven, Bull, and 
Storm smoked. Sioux, Apaches, and Osages also smoked, and 
the next summer (1854) all these people came together in one big 
village and set out to avenge the losses of the year before. 
Agent Whitfield^ reported: 

The Indians were encamped on Pawnee Fork, at the crossing of the Santa 
Fe Road, where they were collected in larger numbers than have ever been 
known to assemble on the Arkansas River before. Old traders estiinate the 
number at from twelve to fifteen hundred lodges, and the horses and mules 
at from forty to fifty thousand head. The entire Kiowa and Prairie Comanche 
were there; several hundred of Texas or Woods Comanche had come over; 
the Prairie Apache, one band of Arrapahoe, and two bands of Cheyenne, and 
the Osages composed the grand council. They had met for the purpose of 
forming their war-party in order, as they in their strong language said, to 
"wipe out" all frontier Indians they could find on the plains. 

At some place near the Kansas River they met about one hun- 
dred Sac and Fox Indians, and the fight commenced, but the com- 
bined forces were compelled to retreat, leaving their dead on the 
field. They reported their loss at about sixteen killed and one 
hundred wounded. The prairie Indians were armed with the 
bow and arrow, formidable at close quarters but useless at long 
range. The others had fine rifles. The rifle told almost every 
shot, either on rider or horse. 

Seven tribes were engaged in this alliance — Kiowas, Coman- 
ches, Apaches, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Osages, and Sioux. There 
were said to have been with them also a few Crows. If these last 
were present it shows that the peace of 1851 — the Horse Creek 
treaty — was still in force between the Crows and the prairie 
tribes. 

The allies started north, but before they had reached the 

Republican River, when they were not far from the place where 

the summer before they had fought the Pawnees, a scouting party 

of Prairie Apaches, led by the chief Plenty of Old Camps, one 

* Report Commissioner Indian Affairs, 1854, p. 89. 



BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 99 

morning came on a hunting party of less than one hundred Sac 
and Fox who were proceeding to the plains in search of buffalo. 
In the little skirmish which ensued Plenty of Old Camps was 
shot at and his people retreated to the main body. When they 
came to the other warriors and told the news the allies prepared 
for battle and rode out to meet the Sac and Fox, with whom were 
a few Potawatomi. 

It is uncertain how large the party of Sacs was. Hewitt says 
they numbered fifty. Others say not over two hundred. The 
usual estimate is one hundred. The number of the prairie Indians 
is no doubt much exaggerated in the printed reports, but it must 
have been large. 

About the year 1897 George Bent talked with an old Sac who 
had been with the party of hunters. This man said that when 
they saw the great force of prairie Indians coming toward them 
they were much alarmed. The Sac chief ordered his men to re- 
treat to a ridge nearby, and this move, the old man said, saved the 
party from annihilation. They were hardly in position w^hen the 
mounted men charged them from every direction. The Sac 
and Fox were all armed with good guns, and fought on foot, but — 
except the Osages— the prairie Indians had few firearms. The 
attacking party charged again and again, but were unable to get 
near enough to their enemies to use effectiveh^ either their bows 
or their old smooth-bore trade guns. The Sac and Fox soon saw 
the advantage the superiority of their arms gave them and that, 
notwithstanding the numbers of the enemy, they could keep them 
at a distance. Having some idea of discipline and order, they so 
handled their rifles that all the guns were never empty at the same 
time. They fought much as did the Potawatomi who had come 
to the assistance of the Kit'ka hahki the year before; they fired by 
relays, and thus were able always to repel the charges made on 
them.^ 

By his bravery in this fight Old Whirlwind ^ added greatly to 



^ The Sacs lost five men killed and four wounded, and this loss was in- 
flicted by the Osages, who had good guns. The Sacs knew this and later 
declared war on the Osages. A Sac who had lost a brother in the fight ap- 
proached the Osage camp, and met two Osages, one of whom he killed and 
scalped, allowing the other to return to take the news to camp. 

2 He v6 vi tS,s'tami titsts', Moving Whirlwind. 



100 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

his reputation. He wore a war bonnet from which nearly all the 
feathers were shot away, but the little stuffed hawk tied on the 
left front of the headpiece was untouched, and Whirlwind be- 
lieved that this charm saved his life. He has more than once told 
me of the circumstances. "The balls," he said, "were flying 
thick all about me. The feathers were cut from my war bonnet, 
yet the hawk that was on it in front was not hit, and I was not hit. 
The Sacs were fighting on foot in a little hollow — a place like a 
buffalo wallow — and I was riding a horse and kept trying to 
charge up close. Afterward I wondered that I had not been 
killed. He'amma vi'hio and the hawk protected me." 

The prairie Indians at length retreated, having lost several 
Kiowas and Comanches, one Apache, and two Osages. Only a 
few Cheyennes were engaged in the fight, and the number of 
Arapahoes was still smaller; in fact, it is said that the Arapahoes 
stood off and looked on, taking little or no part in the battle. 

Grattan and Ash Hollow, 1854-5 

Fort Laramie was an important station on the Platte, and 
near it were various trading-posts. Near the trading-posts were 
usually camps of Indians — Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. 

An event in which the Sioux were chiefly concerned, yet which 
the Cheyennes witnessed, and which had a bearing on the whole 
Indian situation, was the killing of Lieutenant Grattan and his 
command near Bordeaux's trading-post, nine miles east of Laramie. 
This was followed a year later by Harney's battle north of Ash 
Hollow. 

In 1852 things were quiet enough along the Platte, but about 
this time Major Hoffman, of the Sixth Infantry, wrote to head- 
quarters remonstrating against the policy of placing a handful of 
troops under inexperienced officers in the heart of the Indian 
country. No attention was paid to this protest, and in the fol- 
lowing year trouble occurred. 

In the summer of 1853 a Minneconjou Sioux, a visitor recently 
from the Missouri, had fired across the river at a soldier who was 
in a boat. The local Indians were in no sense responsible for this. 
Lieutenant Fleming was sent across the river to the Indian camp to 
arrest this man, or others, to be held as hostages, and found nearly 



BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 101 

all the men absent. The Indians, alarmed at the invasion of the 
troops, fled, firing as they ran, and the troops in turn fired at them 
and killed three or four. The Indians were not unfriendly but 
simply frightened, as testified by Captain Edward Johnson, who 
pointed out that there were at that time out and at a distance 
from the fort the herd guard, a hay party, and a party at the post 
farm, all of whom the Indians might easily have killed. Instead 
of opening hostilities, however, the Indians came into the fort 
next day and told the commanding officer that perhaps the sol- 
diers had done right according to their way of thinking. Noth- 
ing more was done in the matter, but the Indians felt badly about 
it, and complained that the white soldiers, who had been brought 
among them to keep the peace, had been the first to make the 
ground bloody. 

The following year the first real fighting with the plains In- 
dians was brought on by the inexperience and hot-headedness of 
a young army officer. Lieutenant Grattan, stationed at Fort 
Laramie. The matter is fully discussed in official papers, but the 
account has been given me also by William Rowland, who had 
married into the Cheyenne tribe and was living with them, and 
who then was in the Sioux camp. 

Grattan, a young Irish officer, was boastful, hot-headed, and 
rough. As he went about the post he often abused and threatened 
the Indians, shaking his fist close to their faces and telling them 
what he would do if ever he had a chance to get at them. Grat- 
tan seemed to think that Lieutenant Fleming had greatly distin- 
guished himself the year before, when he had led a party against 
the Sioux and had killed some of them, but declared that the In- 
dians should have been punished more severely. 

It happened at one time some young Cheyennes ran off a 
part of the horses belonging to the post interpreter, who was very 
unpopular with the Indians, and a party of citizens from the post 
pursued them, but when the Cheyennes halted and showed fight 
the citizens also stopped and finally returned to the fort, where 
they were much ridiculed by Grattan. He declared that all In- 
dians were cowards, and that with ten soldiers he could whip 
the entire Cheyenne nation, while with thirty he would make 
all the tribes of the plains run. He was eager to show himself 
an Indian fighter, and persuaded the commanding officer at the 



102 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

post to promise that the next time there was any trouble he should 
be sent out to deal with the Indians. 

Shortly after this a foot-sore, worn-out cow, abandoned by an 
emigrant, was found by a Sioux Indian, who, seeing the beast's 
condition and needing a piece of hide, killed the cow and skinned 
off so much of the hide as he required. Somewhat later the emi- 
grant, having learned that his cow had been killed, went to the 
post and complained against the Indian, no doubt thinking here 
was a chance to make a little money or to get another animal in 
place of the one abandoned.^ About the same time the Brule 
chief. Bear that Scatters (apparently Bear that Scatters his 
Enemies) appeared at the post to report the killing of the animal. 
The Mormon was offered by the Indians ten dollars as pay for 
his worn-out beast, but demanded twenty-five dollars, and this 
was refused. The Indian who had shot the animal was not a 
Brule but a Minneconjou. Bear that Scatters requested Lieu- 
tenant Fleming, who was in temporary command at the fort, to 
send some soldiers after this Indian, for he felt sure that he could 
persuade the man to surrender, or could induce his people to give 
the man up. Fleming seems to have considered the matter of 
no importance and refused to send for the Indian, saying that he 
would wait until the Indian agent arrived and would lay the com- 
plaint before him. 

The testimony of the post surgeon indicates that the killing 
of the cow would have been overlooked but for the importunities 
of Grattan, who begged so hard to be allowed to go and get the 
Indian that Fleming yielded and sent Grattan with a detachment 
to make the arrest. Fleming limited Grattan's orders, directing 
that the Indian was to be taken only "if practicable and without 
unnecessary risks." 

When Grattan received the orders he became violently ex- 
cited, so much so that some spectators thought him drunk. He 
was ordered to take twenty men, but instead of taking the detail 
he called for volunteers "for dangerous service" and took thirty 
men, with a sergeant and corporal, and two howitzers. Declar- 
ing his purpose to "conquer or die," he left the post about three 

* Senate Documents, 34th Congress, 1st and 2d Sessions, vol. XIV, p. 1 of 
Document 91; see also House Executive Document, No. 63, 33d Congress, 2d 
Session. 






BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 103 

o'clock in the afternoon and marched down the valley toward the 
Indian village. 

The troops moved on to the Sioux camps, about nine miles 
east of Fort Laramie. One of these, west of Bordeaux's buildings, 
was of Ogallalas, and the other, between Bordeaux's and the river, 
was of about one hundred lodges of Brules, among which were 
twenty lodges of Minneconjous. In one of these last was the man 
who had killed the cow. Grattan marched his men into the open 
space in the camp, and to within about sixty yards of the Minne- 
conjou lodges. 

When the troops halted, they formed in line — the two howitzers 
in the centre and the soldiers on either side. The men, wholly 
unconcerned, threw themselves on the ground and sat there 
while for the better part of an hour Grattan talked with the chiefs. 
Of what passed between them only the Indian version can be had. 
Both the Brule chief and Man Afraid of his Horses^ are said to 
have urged Grattan to return to the post and leave the matter 
until the coming of the agent. The Brule chief even offered to 
give a mule if the lieutenant would postpone the matter until 
the agent's arrival. Grattan refused these requests. Man Afraid 
of his Horses made great efforts for peace. 

At length the men who were looking on from the trader's 
house saw the soldiers rise to their feet and bring their guns down 
as if to fire; then a shot sounded, and the fight began. At the first 
volley Bear that Scatters was wounded in three places. The 
soldiers fired first. 

The soldiers were at once fired on by the Indians, and began to 
retreat, but almost immediately met the Ogallalas coming from 
the other camp, and all fell before the arrows. As soon as they 
had killed the soldiers, the Indians made a rush for the trading- 
houses, no doubt intending to plunder them, but the chief stopped 
them and protected the white people there. The wounded chief 
came to the trader's store and there placed a guard of Indian 
soldiers, but all night long Indians were coming and demanding 
goods from Bordeaux, who feared to refuse them anything. Mean- 

^ The proper interpretation of this name is "they fear his horses," mean- 
ing that his enemies are frightened when they see even his horses, with the 
imphcation that if they saw the man himself they would be stiU more fright- 
ened. This man was the real chief of the Ogallalas as late as 1873. 



104 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

time the women had taken down the lodges and moved across 
the river. 

Bordeaux, who for years had been a trader at Laramie/ was 
thus robbed by wholesale. In the East he was also called liar and 
renegade, because he expressed the opinion that the Indians had 
been forced to fight by Grattan's conduct. Bear that Scatters, 
who among the white men bore the reputation of a good old man, 
was abused as being the chief figure in this "massacre." He 
had always acted in the most friendly way toward the whites; 
had returned property taken from them, to the indignation of 
some of his own people, and on two or three occasions had killed 
men of his own band as punishment for injury to the whites. 
Now, however, the newspapers in the East declared that he had 
led Grattan into an ambuscade, and that the whole affair was a 
plot to entrap and kill the soldiers. Not long after this the chief 
died of his wounds. 

The War Department declined to accept the testimony of the 
officers of the post that Grattan was responsible for the fight, and 
the Eastern public refused to believe that the Indians had been 
attacked. People in the East insisted that the Indians had treach- 
erously massacred a gallant young officer and his men, and that 
the murderers must be severely punished. 

Colonel William S. Harney was chosen to lead a punitive ex- 
pedition against the supposedly hostile Indians, and marched from 
Fort Leavenworth up the Platte in the late summer of 1855. Near 
the forks of the Platte, September 2, he learned that a part of the 
Brules, under Little Thunder, were camping on the Blue River 
just north of the North Platte. On September 3 Colonel Harney 
sent his cavalry to take a position in the rear of the Indian camp 
to cut off their retreat, and shortly after, with the infantry, he 
marched up the valley of the Blue. Colonel Cooke was in com- 
mand of the cavalr}^ and was guided by Tesson,^ an old trapper. 
Marching on the high prairie, he several times started to go down 
into the valley, but on each occasion saw that the camp extended 
farther up the creek, and it was not until about sunrise that he 

' Parkman mentions him as the chief trader in 1846. 

^ Very Ukely the same Tesson who in 1844 was sent away from Bent's 
Fort by Colonel St. Vrain because he had shot at a negro blacksmith who 
had been one of a party that had shivareed Tesson the night before. (Boggs's 
manuscript, Colorado State Historical Association^ Denver, Colorado.) 



BEFORE WARS BROKE OUT 105 

reached the upper end of the camp, estimated to be four miles 
long, and hid his forces in a dry gully, from which point he after- 
ward made his charge. 

When the infantry marching up the valley came in sight of 
the Sioux camp the Indians had already taken the alarm, had 
pulled down their lodges, and were moving off up the valley. 
They were persuaded to stop, and Little Thunder came down to 
talk with Harney. He threatened the Brule chief and demanded 
that the slayers of Grattan be given up. The chief, unable to 
comply with the demand, went back to his people and told them 
that the troops were about to attack them. About this time a 
movement among the Indians indicated that the cavalry had 
been discovered, and Harney moved forward to the attack. The 
Indians were on a bluff at the right of the valley, and when charged 
by the troops they were driven beyond it, while the cavalry 
charged on them from up the stream. The Indians fled without 
resistance. They received the fire of the infantry at long range 
from the right, while the cavalry charged them on the left and 
rear. The chase was kept up for five or six miles. Numbers of 
the Indians were killed, and the rest were scattered. Colonel 
Harney reported eighty-six Indians killed, five wounded, and about 
seventy women and children captured. Some horses and mules 
and a great amount of Indian property were taken. 

This fight near Ash Hollow is a good example of the way in 
which Indians have often been treated by the troops, acting, of 
course, under orders from Washington. The individuals or 
groups of Indians who have committed depredations run away, 
while the friendly camps, easily found, are attacked by troops, 
and their inhabitants slaughtered. Several considerable killings 
of Indians, where this precise thing has taken place, readily sug- 
gest themselves. Such are Ash Hollow, 1855; Sand Creek, 1864; 
Battle of the Washita, 1868; and the Baker fight on the Marias 
River in 1870. In all these attacks on friendly villages the women 
and children, least able to get away, have been the chief sufferers. 
In the reports of Indians killed they are usually counted full- 
fledged warriors, 

Harney's fight was very popular in the East, and General 
Scott approved his first report. Dunn says, however,^ that Gen- 

^ Massacres of the Mountains, p. 236. 



106 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

eral Scott "objected seriously to the killing of women and chil- 
dren that had occurred at Ash Hollow." 

The blow struck terror to the Sioux, and when after the fight 
Harney moved to Laramie and again demanded the "murderers" 
of Grattan, five Indians dressed in their war clothes rode up to 
the post singing their death songs. These were Red Leaf and 
Long Chin, two brothers of the dead Bear that Scatters, and 
Spotted Tail, together with Red Plume and Spotted Elk, the last 
two coming in as hostages for two of the "murderers," one of 
whom was too ill to Come, while the other had fled. These seven 
men who had surrendered, with their women, were sent to Fort 
Leavenworth. 

In March, 1856, Harney held a council with the Sioux at Fort 
Pierre. They were very humble and agreed to give up the man 
who had killed the cow, and to make reparation for the destruc- 
tion of property. The Cheyennes, however, were not humble. 
They had committed some trifling depredations, and Harney 
seemed to feel that they should be punished as well as the Sioux 
and recommended that an expedition be sent against them in 
the spring. Before anything was done the border ruffian troubles 
in Kansas gave the troops something else to think of for the time, 
and the Cheyennes escaped. 



X 

THE SUMNER CAMPAIGN 

1857 

What was really the first collision between the Cheyenne 
tribe and United States troops took place the year following 
General Harney's attack on the Sioux camp at Ash Hollow. 

In the spring of 1856 a camp of Cheyennes near the Upper 
Platte Bridge was reported to have four horses said to belong to 
white men. They were strays picked up on the prairie. The 
commanding officer of the post sent word to the Cheyennes that 
these horses should be brought in, and three or four of the Indians 
went to the fort to talk about this. They were told that the horses 
must be given up, but that their white owners would pay the In- 
dians a reward for finding and caring for the stock. It was un- 
derstood that the Indians agreed to return the horses, but only 
three of them were brought in, for it was declared that the fourth 
had not been found at the place nor at the time described by the 
owner, and that it had been a long time in the Indian camp. 
The man who had it refused to give it up. This was Two Tails, 
afterward and at the time of his death known as Little Wolf,*^ 
who in the Dull Knife outbreak, in 1878, led the party of Chey- 
ennes north to the Powder River country. The Cheyennes to- 
day say that the people generally wished Little Wolf to bring in 
this horse, and even talked about seizing Little Wolf and giving 
him up to the soldiers because they feared that his obstinacy would 
bring about war. Little Wolf, however, was firm in his refusal 
to give up the horse, and even as early as this he was a man of 
so much influence that the Indians could do nothing. 

When the Indians refused to give up the fourth horse the com- 
manding officer ordered certain Cheyennes to be arrested. One 
was caught by the guard and the others broke away and fled. 

» Coyote— Ohlibm. 
107 



108 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The printed reports say that the soldiers firing upon them killed 
one.^ The man arrested was Wolf Fire. He was held in custody 
for a long time, and finally died in the guard-house, although it 
was perfectly well understood by soldiers and Indians alike that 
he had committed no offense whatever. On his arrest Wolf Fire's 
relations, men, women and children, fled to the Black Hills, 
leaving their lodges standing, and the troops confiscated all the 
possessions they had left behind. The following night an old 
trapper, named Ganier, who was returning to the fort, met the 
Cheyennes, who killed him. The remaining Cheyennes fled south- 
ward and joined the Southern Cheyennes, on the Arkansas. 
They moved up to its head, and then over to the Smoky Hill 
River,2 and then to the Solomon River.' 

Toward the end of August, 1856, a considerable war party of 
Cheyennes who had started north against the Pawnees camped in 
the bottom of the Platte River, on Grand Island, just below Fort 
Kearny, not far from the wagon-road. As they were resting 
there during the day, some of the young men saw approaching the 
mail wagon coming up the river on its way to Fort Kearny. 
Among the Indians was a young half-breed to whom some of his 
companions said : " You are a white man ; go out and speak to the 
driver and ask him to give you a piece of tobacco. We have 
nothing to smoke, and perhaps he will give you something." 
With a companion the young half-breed walked out to the road 
and when the wagon drew near made signs to the driver, asking 
him to stop. The driver, however, was frightened by the ap- 
pearance of the Indians and whipped up his animals and, drawing 
a pistol, fired at the Indians. They jumped to one side and, 
angered by the demonstration, shot arrows at the driver and 
wounded him in the arm. Meantime the leaders of the Cheyenne 
party, hearing the shot, jumped on their horses and rode out to 
see what the matter was and, finding that the young men had 
shot at the driver, rode after them, quirted them severely, and 
drove them back to the camp. The day was rainy and cold, and 
the Indians did not continue their journey but sat about, huddled 
up in their buffalo robes. 

1 Report Commissioner Indian Affairs for 1856, pp. 87 and 100. 
* Grove of Timber Creek, MJlno'iyo'he'. 
' Turkey Creek, Mahki'ne ohe. 




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THE SUMNER CAMPAIGN 109 

The next morning they saw troops coming toward them and 
wondered where they were going, but the troops charged straight 
at them, and the Indians, seeing that they were coming with hos- 
tile intent, dropped their bows, arrows, and robes and ran away on 
foot, leaving their horses. Six of the Indians were killed. This 
is the story told me by William Rowland, who was in the Chey- 
enne camp at the time and heard of the matter at first hand im- 
mediately after it happened. 

The report of Captain G. H. Stewart, of the First Cavalry, 
who commanded the troops, forty-one in number, states that ten 
Indians were left dead on the field, and that eight or ten were 
badly wounded; that twenty-two horses and two mules were 
captured, and a number of saddles, shields, lances, buffalo robes, 
etc., were found. 

He adds significantly: 

I lost no men, and not a wound was received.^ 

The Indians thus attacked, driven from their camp, and 
robbed, crossed the river and, falling in with a small wagon-train, 
killed two white men and a child and took some property, thus 
avenging the attack made on them. This occurred on Cotton- 
wood Fork, about thirty-three miles northeast of Fort Kearny. 

On September 6 a small Mormon train was attacked and two 
men and a woman and child were killed, and a second woman was 
carried off. These acts were all the direct consequences of the 
blunder made by Captain Stewart in attacking the war party. 
Captain Stewart was quick-tempered and impetuous. His 
action led the Indians to believe that the government wished to 
fight them, and encouraged the young men to go to war and at- 
tack the defenseless trains, and finally brought about the Sumner 
campaign. 

During this summer other Cheyenne war parties had been out 
searching for Pawnees, and some of them, when they failed to find 
the enemy, turned about, went up the Platte River, and stopped 
at Fort Kearny, They were invited in to see the commanding 
officer, who told them nothing about the killing of the six Chey- 
ennes but said that there had been fighting up above, and then 

* Kansas Historical Collections, vol. IV, p. 491. 



110 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

brought out two arrows and put them on the table and asked 
them to what tribe these arrows belonged. The Cheyennes at 
once identified them as Sioux arrows. The commanding officer 
then asked: "Are there any Sioux among you?" The Cheyennes 
pointed out a Sioux sitting there, and when he was asked about 
the arrows he agreed that they were Sioux arrows. 

A little later some of the young men who were present, look- 
ing out of the window, saw half a dozen soldiers approaching the 
building, and most of the Cheyennes, fearing trouble, got up and 
went out. Three men. Big Head, afterward a chief of the Chey- 
ennes, Good Bear, living in 1914, Black Hairy Dog, afterward 
keeper of the medicine arrows, and the Sioux remained, and pres- 
ently the guard entered and arrested the Sioux and took him out 
to be put in irons. Meantime the young men who had gone out 
of the office had run to their camp, mounted their horses and re- 
tm-ned, and now called to the Cheyennes who were still in the 
post to come out and run away. The three men pushed aside the 
guard and ran out, and the guard fired at them. Big Head, 
being the last of the three, was hit by several bullets. The Chey- 
ennes were helped on horses and rode away. The Sioux, who 
was being shackled with a ball and chain, also broke from his 
captors and ran out, carrying the ball in his hand, and was helped 
on a horse and escaped. Meantime the soldiers had loeen saddling 
their horses and rode down to the Cheyenne camp and there 
captured thirteen Cheyenne horses and drove them to the corral. 
After Big Head had gone a little way his companions helped him 
off with his coat and threw it on the ground, where it remained. 
It was covered with blood. The Cheyennes then went off to their 
main village. 

A few days later another Cheyenne war party was journeying 
up the river toward the fort, but before reaching it they met a 
man named Heath, who had been the sutler at Fort Atkinson and 
was now sutler at Fort Kearny. He had a brother who later was 
a general in the Confederate army. Heath told them something 
of what had happened at the post, and advised them not to go 
there as they might get into trouble. Some of the young men, 
however, rode up near the post and found Big Head's coat and 
later saw, feeding with the government herd, horses recognized 
as Cheyenne horses belonging to Big Head's party. They made 



THE SUMNER CAMPAIGN 111 

a charge on the herd and ran off the thirteen horses that the troops 
had captured from the Cheyennes but did not take any of the 
government animals. 

During his absence Big Head had been made a chief, and some 
time after his return he requested the Cheyennes not to pay any 
regard to the injury that had been done him, but to ignore the 
whole matter. 

In the autumn the Cheyennes, at the call of Colonel William 
Bent, went in to the new fort to receive their annuities, and there 
was no further trouble with the troops until the following July, 
1857, when they were attacked by Colonel E. V. Sumner. The 
Southern Cheyennes declare that any depredations committed 
during the latter part of 1856 and the early part of 1857 were done 
by SioiLX or Northern Cheyennes. They know nothing about 
them. 

In September and October, 1856, Agent Thomas S. Twiss,^ 
writing from Dripp's trading-post, then the Indian agency of the 
Upper Platte, explained at some length the dispute about the 
four horses which resulted in the killing of one Indian, the capture 
and subsequent death as a prisoner of Wolf Fire, and the death 
at the hands of the Indians of the old trapper Ganier and the at- 
tack on the mail rider and subsequent attacks on emigrant-trains. 
The delegation of Cheyennes who talked with the agent ex- 
pressed deep regret at what had taken place, but said that they 
could not control the war party "when they saw their friends 
killed by the soldiers after they had thrown down their bows and 
arrows and begged for life." 

The agent reported later: "The Cheyennes are perfectly 
quiet and peaceable and entirely within my control, and obedient 
to my authority." He then tells of the giving up to a surveying 
party of the white woman who had been captured, and complains 
with some bitterness of the obstacles thrown in his path by the 
military authorities. 

After their troubles on the Platte all the Cheyennes, Northern 
and Southern, except the small camp of Wolf Fire's relations, 

* Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1856, p. 87 et seq. Thomas 
S. Twiss — admitted 1822 — graduated at West Point, second in his class, July 1, 
1826, and was promoted brevet second lieutenant, engineers. Resigned 1829. 
Ware saw him in 1864. 



112 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

gathered on the Solomon River, where they spent the winter. 
The people were uneasy and felt that they were not safe. It 
seemed to them that the white people wished to fight them, and 
many of those whose relations had been killed were angered by 
the injuries done to the tribe. Criers kept haranguing the camp 
telling what had happened, and the Indians talked much about 
these difficulties. On the whole, there was a growing feeling of 
injury and hostility and a disposition to fight back. 

In the camp there were two medicine men who believed that 
in case war came they had the power to give the victory to their 
own people, and they persuaded the Cheyennes that they could 
do this. They were Ice, now White Bull,^ and Dark,^ long since 
dead. These two men were to use their spiritual power against 
the whites. One informant says that it w^as believed that if they 
made certain motions toward the enemy, the enemy would all 
fall dead. Another understood that their power would be used 
to check the balls coming from the white men's guns, so that the 
balls would drop harmless from the muzzles. 

A council was held to consider the question of fighting the 
white men, and certain ceremonies were performed. Then the 
camp separated, the Northern people moving northward, and 
the Southern people to the south. After the northern section of 
the tribe had proceeded north for a few days they came upon some 
soldiers, and when they saw them did not stop to meet them, but 
ran away south and overtook the Southern people. Their report 
seemed to show that there must be fighting, and when the warm 
weather came the tribe set out to meet the soldiers and destroy 
them. 

In the spring of 1857 Colonel E. V. Sumner left Fort Leaven- 
worth with six troops of the old First Cavalry — now Fourth 
Cavalry — and three companies of infantry. Soon after start- 
ing the command divided but met again on the South Platte, 
July 4. 

A little later Sumner was informed that the Indians were out 
" in force " intending " to resist." He left his w^agons on the South 
Platte and started with pack-animals to look for the Indians. 



^ White Bull, Ho tud hwoTco mS is. He was not then living in the north. 
'^ Dark, Ah no kit'. 



114 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

He struck the trail July 24, and on the 29th overtook them. 
His report, which is extremely short and lacking in detail, says: 

On the 29th of July, while pursuing the Cheyennes down Solomon's 
Fork of the Kansas, we suddenly came upon a large body of them drawn up 
in battle array, with their left resting upon the stream and their right covered 
by a bluff. ... I think there were about three hundred. The cavalry was 
about three miles in advance of the infantry, and the six companies of the 
1st regiment of Cavalry were marching in three columns. I immediately 
brought them into line and, without halting, detached the two flank com- 
panies at a gallop to turn their flanks (a movement they were evidently pre- 
paring to make against our right) and we continued to march steadily upon 
them. The Indians were all mounted and well armed; many of them had 
rifles and revolvers, and they stood with remarkable boldness until we charged 
and were nearly upon them, when they broke in all directions, and we pur- 
sued them seven miles. Their horses were fresh and very fleet, and it was 
impossible to overtake many of them. 

There were but nine Indians killed in the pursuit, but there must have 
been a great number wounded. I had two men killed, and Lieutenant 
J. E. B. Stuart and eight men wounded. ^ 

This charge was made with the sabre, perhaps the only oc- 
casion on which a large body of troops charged Indians with the 
sabre. 

To this meagre account Agent Robert C. Miller,^ who for 
some time travelled with Sumner, and undoubtedly often talked 
over the battle with him, adds: 

The Cheyennes, before they went into battle with the troops, under the 
direction of their great medicine man, had selected a spot on the Smoky 
Hill, neg^r a small and beautiful lake, in which they had but to dip their hands 
when the victory over the troops would be an easy one. So their medicine 
man told them, and they had but to hold up their hands and the balls would 
roll from the muzzles of the soldiers' guns, harmless, to their feet. Acting un- 
der this delusion, when Colonel Sumner came upon them with his command he 
found them drawn up in regular line of battle, well mounted, and moving for- 
ward to the music of their war song with as firm a tread as well-disciplined 
troops, expecting, no doubt, to receive the harmless fire of the soldiers and 
achieve an easy victory. But the charm was broken when the command was 
given by Colonel Sumner to charge with sabres, for they broke and fled in the 
wildest confusion, being completely routed. They lost, killed upon the field, 
nine of their principal men, and many more must have died from the effects 
of their wounds, as the bodies of several were found on the route of their 
flight. 

1 Brackett's History of the U. S. Cavalry, p. 175. 

2 Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1857, p. 141. 



THE SUMNER CAMPAIGN 115 

On the other hand, the Cheyennes declare that four Indians 
were killed. These were Coyote Ear, Yellow Shirt, Carries the 
Otter, and Black Bear. Coyote Ear was a brother of She Bear, 
now living, and the father-in-law of George Bent., Carries the 
Otter was the father of the well-known Two Moons. It is quite 
true, as Agent Miller declares, that the charge with the sabres 
wholly disconcerted the Cheyennes, who became panic-stricken, 
did not attempt to fight, and ran away as hard as they could. 
Sumner was somewhat criticised in military circles for the use of 
the sabre, for it was thought that had firearms been used many 
more Indians would have been killed. 

At the camp — according to Cheyenne information — the Indians 
left their lodges standing and moved off with packs, going south 
of the Arkansas River, where they met the Kiowas, Apaches, 
Comanches, and a few Arapahoes. The troops followed the trail 
of the fleeing Indians, burned the abandoned lodges, and then 
marched up the Arkansas to Bent's Fort, where Sumner seized 
the Cheyenne annuities. Most of the goods he took for the use 
of his command, but a small quantity was distributed among the 
friendly Indians. Sumner now marched back down the river, 
intending to attack the Cheyennes again; but a little later, 
while on Walnut Creek, Sumner received orders to break up the 
expedition and send four companies of cavalry and three of in- 
fantry to join the Mormon expedition. 

Percival G. Lowe, wagon-master of the expedition, was sent 
with Sumner's wagons to Fort Laramie. He gives a detailed 
account of the march thither, and his return to the South Platte 
and of his sojourn there, in his very interesting book.^ 

An interesting account of the Sumner campaign, which gives 
a far better notion of it than the brief reports b}' Sumner and Miller, 
was written by R. M. Peck, a private soldier of the First Cavalry, 
who served with that regiment on the plains from 1856 to 1861.- 

After describing the two commands and their purposes and the 
planned routes, and adding that they had with them four mountain 
howitzers, Mr. Peck goes on to say that Sedgwick left Fort Leaven- 
worth on the 18th of May and travelled westward. At the big 

^ Five Years a Dragoon, and Other Adventures on the Great Plains. (Kansas 
City, 1906.) 

* Kansas State Historical Collections, vol. VIII, p. 484 et seq., 1903-4. 



116 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

bend of the Arkansas the command, with its beef -herd and mule- 
trains, was threatened by a stampeding herd of buffalo which 
swept down on them. The situation was critical, and Major 
Sedgwick, who had not had much experience on the plains, did 
not know what to do, and turned the command over to Captain 
Sturgis. The wagon-train was corralled, the beef-herd driven 
into the enclosure, and the troops opened fire on the approaching 
herd, splitting it, so that the two branches passed them on either 
side. It took this herd of buffalo about half an hour to pass the 
troops. 

A little later the command passed old Fort Atkinson,^ aban- 
doned several years before, and after reaching the Arkansas 
followed up the river on the well-worn road then called the Cali- 
fornia trail. Bent's New Fort was the next place reached. It was 
a frontier trading-post, and "with its motley crew of retainers 
and hangers-on, of Mexicans, Indians, French Canadians, and 
white trappers and their various equipments and appurtenances, 
made an interesting picture of frontier life." At this time William 
Bent was the only survivor of the four brothers who had been 
engaged in the fur trade. The agency for Cheyennes, Arapahoes, 
Kiowas, Prairie Apaches, and Northern Comanches was at this 
post. 

Sedgwick's command was accompanied by half a dozen Dela- 
ware scouts engaged at Leavenworth. The chief of these was 
named Fall Leaf, and they were efficient scouts, trailers, and 
hunters throughout the expedition. Sumner had with him a few 
Pawnees as guides and trailers. 

After Sumner and Sedgwick had met at the South Platte, where 
they came together on the 5th of July, they prepared to start 
south with a pack-train and moved out July 13. The only 
wheeled vehicles taken were an ambulance for the use of the sick, 
and four mountain howitzers, which formed a four-gun battery 
under the command of Second Lieutenant George D. Bayard.^ 



^ Fort Atkinson was built in 1850 and abandoned in 1853. It was one 
great sod building, and was called by the soldiers Fort Soddy, and later Fort 
Sodom. Fort Larned, at first called Camp Alert, was the next post built on ' 
the Arkansas, in 1859. 

^ lAJe oj George Dashiell Bayard, by Samuel J. Bayard. (New York, 
1874.) 



THE SUMNER CAMPAIGN 117 

In the valley of the Solomon River, July 29, the troops met 
with a large body of Indians which had apparently been for some 
time awaiting them, as many of the Indians had unsaddled and 
turned their horses loose to graze. No one knows how many 
Indians there were, but to the white troops the number seemed 
large, just as to the Indians the troops seemed many. A Cheyenne 
who took part in the battle told me that on this occasion he saw 
more white troops together than he had ever seen before. The 
battle was opened by a shot fired by one of Sumner's Indian scouts, 
and the troops were ordered to sling their carbines and to charge 
with the sabre. The Indians did not wait to receive the charge, 
but after one or two rather ineffectual volleys of arrows they 
scattered and fled. Two white men were killed and a few wounded. 
The troops estimated that about thirty Cheyennes were killed. 
One was taken alive, and after the battle the Pawnees tried to 
purchase this captive from Colonel Sumner, but of course he was 
not given up to them. 

It has already been said that instead of thirty only four 
Cheyennes were really killed. There is no reason to suppose 
that the number of Cheyenne fighting men that appeared on the 
battle-field was over three hundred, and, notwithstanding the 
reference to rifles and revolvers, it is well known that at this time 
they had no guns except a few of the old-fashioned flintlock 
smoothbores, obtained from the traders. Most of the Indians 
were armed with bows and arrows. 

That winter, 1857-8, Wolf Fire's relatives started south from 
the Black Hills, and when they reached Fort Laramie they were 
stopped and the four men arrested. The Cheyenne who had 
been captured by Sumner was taken to a post on the Platte de- 
scribed as below Fort Laramie. It was probably Fort Kearny. 
The four men arrested at Laramie were sent to this same post 
and confined there. The next spring, after the grass had grown, 
the five men were taken to Fort Laramie, and the same summer, 
after the Cheyennes had made a peace with the soldiers there, 
the prisoners were set free. 



XI 

GOLD IN COLORADO 

1858-63 

In the summer of 1858, according to Agent Miller, the Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes were in camp on the Pawnee Fork. He 
said that the Cheyennes were anxious for a treaty, having learned 
a lesson the fall before in their fight with Colonel Sumner; that 
they acknowledged that it was useless to fight against the white 
man, who would soon occupy the whole country ; that the buffalo 
were disappearing and they wished peace and hoped that the Great 
Father would give them a home where they might be provided 
for and protected until they had been taught to cultivate the soil. 
This was not a new idea among the Cheyennes, for a dozen years 
before the famous chief, Yellow Wolf (Yellow Coyote), had ex- 
pressed to Lieutenant J. W. Abert^ the wish of many of the Chey- 
ennes to have individual lands set apart for them and to be in- 
structed in the art of raising crops from the ground. 

The Kiowas and Comanches, on the other hand, were unwill- 
ing to treat, and Tohausen, the Kiowa chief, so well known as 
Mountain or Little Mountain, spoke with especial hostility to the 
whites. 

In his report for 1859 Agent Bent said that the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes wished to settle down and farm, and asked for 
a treaty to be held the next year by which lands might be 
provided for them. He said that "the Cheyenne and Arapaho 
tribes scrupulously maintain peaceful relations with the whites 

' Of Yellow Wolf Abert said, August 29, 1846: "He is a man of consider- 
able influence, of enlarged views, and gifted with more foresight than any 
other man in his tribe. He frequently talks of the diminishing number of 
his people, and the decrease of the once abundant buffalo. He says that in 
a few years they will become extinct; and unless the Indians wish to pass 
away also, they will have to adopt the habits of the white people, using such 
measures to produce subsistance as will render them independent of the pre- 
carious reliance afforded by the game." He proposed to pay the interpreter 
at Bent's Fort in mules, if he would build them a fort and teach them how to 
cultivate the ground and raise cattle. — {Executive Document 41, 30th Con- 
gress, 1st Session, p. 422.) 

118 



GOLD IN COLORADO 119 

and with other Indian tribes, notwithstanding the many causes 
of irritation growing out of the occupation of the gold region and 
the immigration to it through their hunting grounds, which are 
no longer reHable as a certain source of food to them." 

After the Sumner campaign all the Indians of the central plains, 
excepting the Kiowas, were quiet. In 1858, however, gold was 
discovered in Colorado and a rush of white emigrants set in up the 
Platte and the Arkansas and the Republican. In the spring of 
1859 the travel up the Platte was very large. Bancroft in his 
history of Colorado states that about one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand people came up that river and up the Arkansas and the 
Smoky Hill, but of these only forty thousand remained. The rest, 
discouraged by the hardships of an unaccustomed life, and by the 
failure at once to find gold, came trooping back through the Indian 
country, frightening the game and exciting the Indians. The 
same year the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express Company^ 
established a line of coaches up the Republican River through the 
very heart of the Cheyenne and Arapaho hunting-ground. 

Richardson, who passed over this new route in May, declares 
that he saw not less than ten thousand gold-seekers between 
Leavenworth and Denver, and that thousands more were going 
toward the mountain by an unexplored route up the Smoky Hill.^ 
In June, he found a thousand Arapahoes camped in the heart of 
what is now Denver.^ They left their camps there with the women 



^ Root, The Overland Stage to California, p. 153. (Topeka, 1901.) 
^ George Bent says the Indians were greatly astonished at the sudden ap- 
pearance of this swarm of gold-seekers. They thought the whites were insane. 
Some of them really became so, for the Cheyennes found not a few of them 
wandering about in the waterless country between the heads of the Smoky 
Hill and RepubUcan Rivers and the foothills. Many of these men were de- 
Urious from hunger and thirst. The Cheyennea took them to their camps 
and fed them until their strength returned. 

' Richardson speaks of them as being camped in Denver in 1859 and 1860, 
Beyond the Mississippi, p. 300. (Hartford, 1867.) Bancroft, History of 
Colorado, p. 458, note, speaks of them as being still camped in the town 
at times in 1862-3. They left their women and children in Denver and 
went to war against the Utes and a httle later came hurrying back, declaring 
that the Utes were coming after them. The whites were irritated, fearing 
that the Arapahoes would cause a Ute attack on Denver or some other settle- 
ment. In 1863 the Agent persuaded the Cheyennes not to make war on the 
Utes, and a result was that the Utes came and ran off a Cheyenne herd at 
Fort Lyon, within sight of the garrison. 



120 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and children and went to war against the Utes. They were still 
there in 1860, and in 1863 were on very friendly terms with the 
miners. 

In September, 1860, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and Co- 
manches met the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and other special 
commissioners at Bent's Fort. The Kiowas were still at war, 
and did not attend the council. The Indians were given medals 
bearing the portraits of the President. Apparently the Chey- 
ennes there present were only the Arkansas bands. Those which 
ranged on the Republican and Smoky Hill still had plenty of 
buffalo, did not desire a treaty, and did not come in. For the 
making of this treaty with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, 
and Comanches, Congress had appropriated $35,000. There was 
much delay in the proceedings and finally Commissioner Green- 
wood, being unable to remain longer, went away, leaving the 
treaties to be signed by the Indians later. A. G. Boone, a son 
of Daniel Boone and the founder of Booneville^ on the Arkansas 
above Bent's, was the special agent, and in February, 1861, 
succeeded in inducing a part of the Indians to sign the treaties.^ 
Nevertheless, many of the Cheyennes, including the Dog Sol- 
diers, refused to sign, saying that they would never settle on a 
reservation.' In fact, much dissatisfaction over this treaty was 
felt by all the Indians, and when Governor Evans arrived in 
Colorado in 1862 the first Indians he met, a band of Arapahoes, 
complained about the treaty, saying that they had not been 
present and had received nothing for their "land and their gold." 
However, in his report for 1862 Evans states that he believes he 
can quiet the discontent if authorized to hold a council with the 
Indians who did not sign the treaties. One band, the Arapahoes 



1 Now known as Boone, a small railroad town on the north bank of the 
Arkansas at the mouth of Haynes Creek, about twenty miles below Pueblo, 
Colorado. 

^ Little Raven, the Arapaho chief, said at the council of the Little Ar- 
kansas, 1865: "Boone came out and got them (the Indians) to sign a paper, 
but (they) did not know what it meant. The Cheyennes signed it first, then 
I; but we did not know what it was. That is one reason why I want an inter- 
preter, so that I can know what I sign." — Report Secretary of Interior, 1865- 
6, p. 703. 

' "Tenure of Land Among the Indians," American Anthropologist, N. S., 
vol. IX, No. 1, p. 1. 



GOLD IN COLORADO 121 

above mentioned, had already promised to sign the treaty if a 
council was held. 

In 1861 the regular troops were removed from the Indian 
country and sent South, and at this time, if the Indians had 
desired to cause trouble, they could have done so, but although 
the attitude of the Kiowas and Comanches was rather threaten- 
ing, no serious hostilities occurred, and the Cheyennes and Arap- 
ahoes seem to have been very friendly. In August of that year 
Colonel Leavenworth reported from Fort Larned to the same 
effect, but added that all the Indians, friendly and unfriendly, had 
left the road to hunt. Among the whites there was little appre- 
hension of Indian hostility, the only fear being that the Confeder- 
ates might stir up the tribes to war or might even enter the coun- 
try and attack the posts on the Arkansas. 

That some such plan existed among the Confederates seems 
very probable. In May, 1861, F. J. Marshall, of Marysville, 
Kansas, wrote to President Jefferson Davis proposing a plan for 
seizing the western posts by occupying with a Confederate force 
the Cheyenne Pass above the forks of the Platte and operating 
thence to seize Forts Laramie and Wise, capture the overland mail 
line and cut off communication between the East and California. 
This scheme was indorsed by Colonel Weightman."^ 

In May, 1862, the commanding officer at Fort Larned reported 
that Poor (Lean) Bear, a friendly Apache chief, had informed him 
that young Kiowas had recently returned from the Comanche 
country where they had been told that the Comanches had made 
peace with the Texans, as the Indians called all Southerners. These 
young Kiowas had gone with the Comanches to a fort where they 
saw Indians from many tribes, and the commandant, a Con- 
federate, received them very well, gave each one a good gun and 
gave to Bird Bow, their leader, a gun and a suit of uniform. He 
had said to them: "There are on the Arkansas two forts, Larned 
and Wise, belonging to your Great Father; what do you get from 
those forts or what do they do for the Kiowas, Comanches, 
Apaches, and Arapahoes? Keep nothing covered up or nothing 
hidden, but tell me truly in what you are benefited by those two 
forts." 

The Kiowa leader answered that the tribes were not allowed 

^ Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, vol. 1, p. 579. 



122 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

about those forts but were driven off. The commandant told the 
Indians that the Texans were angry and that as soon as their 
horses had shed their winter coats and the grass had become 
good he was going up on the Arkansas to capture Forts Lamed 
and Wise. He did not ask the Indians to help him, but said that 
they must not help the Americans, the Northerners. He would 
be on the river July 4, and the Indians had better keep out of the 
way, for the Texans were angry and might hurt even the Indians. 

This officer was General Albert Pike, C. S. A., the author of the 
song "DLxie," so popular in the South during the Civil War. 
On May 4, 1862, General Pike reported that he had ordered Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Jumper, a Seminole, with his Indian soldiers to 
march to Fort Larned and take it. The Kiowas and Comanches 
often came in to Fort Cobb and were friendly. They had even 
signed treaties with Pike, who had promised to meet the two tribes 
and also the Indians of the reserve at Anadarko, the Agency, 
on July 4. 

Pike's plan failed. The Seminole forces under Jumper melted 
away and the men all went home. The reserve Indians, Caddos, 
Delawares, Wichitas, Kichai, Wacos, Shawnees, Kickapoos, and 
a few Cherokees became hostile and attacked the Confederates, 
and the plains Indians also became hostile. Nevertheless the 
authorities on the Arkansas were in constant fear of an attack 
from the south. In 1863 a party of Confederate officers went 
north toward the Arkansas and were killed to a man by the 
Osages.^ 

There was thus some ground for the well-nigh universal 
alarm concerning a Confederate plot to bring about a rising among 
the plains Indians, but such alarm would have been felt only by 
people ignorant of Indians' ways and ways of thought. Those 
better acquainted with these primitive people would have un- 
derstood that there was so little cohesion among Indians and so 
little idea of united action that there never was any danger of a 
general uprising. 

In the late summer of 1862 the white people on the plains and 
in Colorado had another fright. About the end of August news 
reached the plains of the terrible Sioux uprising in Minnesota 

' "Massacre of Confederates by Osage Indiana in 1863," Kansas His- 
torical Collections, vol. VIII, p. 62. 



GOLD IN COLORADO 123 

and commandants of posts, governors, and legislators at once 
raised a cry of alarm. Official records are full of these alarmists' 
reports and appeals for aid. The white people felt quite certain 
that a great force of savage Minnesota Sioux were marching upon 
them. They clamored for troops and at the same time began to 
regard with suspicion the Indians in their own neighborhood and 
to fear that the most peaceful tribes were plotting deep treachery. 

In September nearly all the settlers on the Nebraska frontier 
were seized with the fear of an Indian attack and rushed to the 
town of Columbus. A war party of Yanktons and Brules at- 
tacked the Pawnee village on the Loup Fork in Nebraska, and the 
Pawnee agent at once surmised that the event portended a gen- 
eral attack on the whole frontier. People were thoroughly fright- 
ened and the most trivial happenings were taken to be the signs 
of an Indian uprising. 

The war party which attacked the Pawnee village killed a 
man — Adam Smith — who was putting up hay near what is now 
Genoa, and the people east of Kearny abandoned their farms and 
left the country. A few of them stopped in Columbus and later 
returned to their ranches, but many never came back. The 
settlers drove their cattle and hogs with them, and loaded into 
their wagons all their household, goods. The people at Columbus 
built a stockade around the town, and for a time it was rumored 
that the Indians were coming down in great force. 

In Colorado, then the greatest centre of population of all the 
plains country, a like fear was felt that the Indians generally 
would follow the example of the Minnesota Sioux. 

In 1862 Governor Evans^ reported the Cheyennes and Arap- 
ahoes restless, but declared that he had no doubt that the ar- 
rival of the Colorado volunteers, who were then under orders to 
return to the territory, would have the effect of keeping the In- 
dians quiet. He had no thought of war and was busying himself 
with plans for settling the Indians on reservations. 

In August, 1862, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches 
were induced by designing white men to attempt to seize their 
annuities near Fort Larned, but Colonel Leavenworth, an officer 
who knew Indians well, induced the tribes to leave the train alone 
and to move away from the road. If there had been more men 

1 Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the Year 1862, p. 229. 



124 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

like Colonel Leavenworth in the country there would have been 
less trouble. 

The record of the years 1862-3 for the Indians of the cen- 
tral plains shows that, considering their grievances and the op- 
portunities they had for taking matters into their own hands, 
the tribes were exceedingly peaceful and forbearing. At this 
time almost all the troops had been withdrawn from the frontier 
to fight the Confederates. There were left on the Arkansas 
thirty-nine men of the Second Infantry at Fort Larned, thirty- 
three men of the Tenth Infantry at Fort Wise, while on the Platte 
there were at Fort Kearny one hundred and twenty-five men of 
the Fourth and Sixth Cavalry and of the Eighth Kansas Cavalry, 
and at Fort Laramie ninety men of the Second and Tenth Infantry. 
Thus over all that great country there were scattered less than 
three hundred men at four posts. If the Indians had desired a 
war these petty garrisons would have been driven from the coun- 
try or killed or penned up within their posts and rendered entirely 
useless as protectors of the travellers through the country, or for 
the few future settlers in it. 

In the spring of 1863 S. G. Colley, the LTnited States Indian 
Agent for the Upper Arkansas, declared that the Indians were 
quiet, though some of the young Kiowas were exacting presents 
from small trains that passed near their camps. At that time he 
declared that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes on the one side and 
the Utes on the other were constantly making war journeys against 
each other, and that when they were on the war-path they were 
very likely to make trouble for any one they might meet. He 
added that there was not a buffalo within two hundred miles of the 
reservation and but little game of any kind, and that starvation 
caused most of the depredations committed by the Indians. 
"Thousands and thousands of buffalo are killed by hunters during 
the summer and fall merely for their hides and tallow, to the dis- 
pleasure and injury of the Indians." He expressed the opinion 
that there was some danger that the Sioux of the Upper Missouri 
might exert a bad influence on the Indians of the plains. 

The intertribal warfare which was constantly going on be- 
tween the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and the Utes was trouble- 
some. War parties of each tribe made frequent journeys into 
the territory of the other tribe to take horses, and these war 



GOLD IN COLORADO 125 

parties often gave trouble to the whites. A returning war party, 
if unsuccessful, was very likely to steal horses from the whites, 
and as they were often hard pushed for food when they came back 
from the enemy's country they often levied contribution on the 
white settlers on the way. Governor Evans early recognized the 
danger of this situation and in 1862 wisely attempted to stop these 
wars.^ At first his efforts were not well received. Later the 
chiefs agreed that he was right, but the young men were not 
disposed to give up their time-honored practises, and in 1863 some 
depredations were charged to these war parties returning from 
the Ute country. 

In the early summer of 1863 some soldiers returning from a 
visit to an Arapaho camp on the Cache la Poudre reported that 
these Indians said that the Sioux had come south and offered them 
the war pipe, but that they had refused to have anything to do 
with the Sioux. Evans thereupon sent a letter by Agent Loree,^ 
of the Upper Platte Agency, to the Commissioner at Washington 
asking permission to hold a council with those Indians who had 
not signed the Fort Wise treaty of 1861. He appears to have 
believed that those bands were the ones likely to make raids, but, 
as already pointed out, those were the least discontented of the 
plains Indians, for they lived on the headwaters of the Repub- 
lican and Smoky Hill where there were still buffalo.^ If any danger 
was to be feared it was from the hungry Indians of the Arkansas 
and the Platte. 

Loree returned from Washington in June authorized to hold a 
council with these Indians, and he. Governor Evans and Agent 
Colley, of the Upper Arkansas Agency, had been appointed com- 
missioners. Evans now endeavored to collect the Indians for a 
council and wrote to Colley to get together the Indians on the 
Arkansas who had not signed the treaty. August 22 Colley re- 
ported from Fort Lyon that the Cheyennes "and Chippewas" 

* Report Commissioner Indian Affairs for 1862, p. 230. 

* This seems to be the proper spelling of the name, though it is written 
Laree, Lorrj'', and even Lovee. 

' Even these bands had cause for complaint. An officer at Salina, at the 
mouth of SaUne Fork on the Smoky Hill, 1864, reports one hundred men on 
Saline alone make a living by killing buffalo for hides and tallow and recom- 
mends that an order be issued forbidding such slaughter of game, as it angers 
the Indians. 



126 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

(sic) refused to attend the council, saying that their horses were 
worn out and that there was no water in the country they would 
be obliged to pass through on their way to the council ground 
on the Arickaree Fork. Probably the real reason for their re- 
fusal was that shortly before a Cheyenne had been killed by a 
soldier at Fort Larned, and the Indians had been at the time very 
angry, but the agent had at last succeeded in pacifying the chiefs 
who said that they were satisfied. The Indian killed was Little 
Heart, son of the famous bowman, Sun Maker, and a member 
of the clan i'vi manah'. Little Heart was drunk at the time 
and was going from the Arapaho village to the fort to procure 
whiskey. The sentry who killed him declared that the Indian 
tried to ride over him, and it was established that this was the 
fact. For this reason the Cheyennes regarded the killing as in a 
measure justifiable. When the Cheyennes went in to Fort Larned 
to talk with the commander at the fort he and the agent gave them 
many presents to pay for the death. 

Antoine Janisse,^ a Frenchman with a Sioux wife, was directed 
to go in search of a band of Cheyennes said to be up near the Yel- 
lowstone, but Janisse was taken ill, and another man went in his 
place from whom no report was received. 



^ Antoine and Nicholas Janisse were born in Saint Charles County, Mis- 
souri, not far from where was born James Bordeaux, who later was chief factor 
of a trading-post on the North Platte belonging to the American Fur Company. 
This post was sold by James Bordeaux to the War Department and subse- 
quently became the mihtary post Fort Laramie. The Janisses and Bordeaux 
knew each other from childhood. They were French Creoles and spoke the 
French language. James Bordeaux brought Antoine and Nicholas Janisse, 
Sefray lyott, and Leon Falladay to the Platte country as employees of the 
American Fur Company. 

Both Janisses married Ogallala Sioux women at Fort Laramie, and brought 
up large famihes. Soon after his marriage Antoine Janisse, with other white 
men who had married Sioux women, moved with their families to a place 
called La Bontd, Colorado, not very far distant from Fort Collins. After 
the treaty of 18G8 all these people returned to the Platte. 

Sefray Ij'ott had married a sister of the Janisses at the time when the 
Ogallala Sioux moved from Fort Laramie to the Whetstone Agency on the 
Missouri River. lyott was perhaps the man who was appointed agent for 
the Upper Platte in 1S64-5, and who is called Jarrot in the reports. The 
Janisses accompanied the Ogallalas to Whetstone, and thence to Pine Ridge 
where they remained until they died. 

Antoine, the elder of the two brothers, died on Pine Ridge Reservation 
about the year 1897, while Nicholas died there about 1905. 



GOLD IN COLORADO 127 

Elbridge Gerry, a trader on the South Platte, was now asked to 
collect the Indians ranging on the heads of the Republican and 
Smoky Hill Rivers. He set out early in June to find the northern 
bands of Southern Cheyennes — the Dog Soldiers — and other 
bands that lived north of the Arkansas. He spent some time 
searching for them, during which he travelled sLx hundred miles, 
but at last discovered one hundred and fifty lodges of Cheyennes 
on the head of the Smoky Hill River. The Indians were hunting 
buffalo and were not disposed to stop for a council. They believed 
that the buffalo would never become scarce and declared that they 
would not give up the hunter's life.^ 

However, Gerry, who understood Indians and was popular 
with the Dog Soldiers, succeeded in persuading a number of men 
to agree to meet him on Beaver Creek and to go to the council. 
Meeting the commissioners, he brought them to the council grounds 
where he left them to go to Beaver Creek to meet the chiefs who 
were not there, and returning to the Cheyenne village he found 
it increased to two hundred and forty lodges. The Indians, 
however, complained that they could not go to the council as their 
children were dying; that they would be glad to see the commis- 
sioners and desired to be on friendly terms with the whites, but 
they would not cede any of their lands until the whole tribe had 
come together to see and hear for themselves. They said that 
the treaty of 1861 was a swindle. White Antelope declared that 
he had never signed the treaty and Black Kettle was said to have 
denied having signed it. The killing of an Indian by a soldier 
at Fort Lamed was resented; they said the white man's hands 
were dripping with blood. They denied that their country — 
that on the heads of the Republican and Smoky Hill — had been 
ceded by the treaty of 1861, and declared that they would never 
give it up. Gerry told them that it was likely a railroad would 
be built through it, but they answered that they did not care, but 
that the whites should never settle along the railroad. This was 
their country. The whites had taken that on the South Platte 
and they did not expect to recover it. A party of them had been 
up on the North Platte to hunt the winter before, but they had 
had a hard time and would not go up there again. The Indians 
spoke with great positiveness and made what they wished very 

* Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the year 1863, p. 129. 



128 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

clear, but they did not speak with any hostility toward the whites. 
Bull Bear, the chief of the Dog Soldiers, expressed a willingness 
to go with Gerry if the Indians would consent, but they held a 
council and forbade him to go. It is apparent that they did not 
trust their chiefs and that they thought that they had been 
bribed or cajoled into signing the treaty of 1861, parting with the 
lands without the knowledge of their people. 

During the war of 1864 Governor Evans stated that at the 
time he considered the failure of the Indians to meet him in coun- 
cil a sign of their hostility, but his reports of 1863 show no such 
feeling on his part. 

In his report of October 14, 1863,^ he states that some depre- 
dations have been made during the year by "single bands and 
small parties" acting independently, but that now the Indians 
are quiet and that the northern bands, meaning those of the Re- 
publican and Smoky Hill, now denounce anyone who speaks for 
war. He concludes by saying that he is confident that no hos- 
tility on the part of the tribes — Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Sioux of 
the Platte — need be apprehended in the future. Agent Colley, 
in his annual report, dated September 30, 1863, also expresses the 
opinion that the Indians generally are friendly, and that only a 
part of the younger Kiowas are giving any trouble. These often 
stop wagon-trains and demand or forcibly take goods. He refers 
to the lack of buffalo and game generally anj^where near the 
reservation. 

Affairs stood in this way when, on November 10, 1863, Robert 
North,^ a white man who had been living among the Indians as 
one of themselves and who could neither read nor write, sub- 



^ Report Commissioner Indian Affairs for 1863, p. 121. 

* Robert North was the "murderous white chief of an outlawed band of the 
Northern or Big Horn Arapahoes" (supposed to have been insane). He had 
two wives, an Arapaho and a Gros Ventre, daughter of Many Bears, head 
chief of the Gros Ventres of the Prairie. He was accused of assisting in 
the destruction of ten miners on the Yellowstone near the mouth of Powder 
River in 1863, and was leader of the Arapaho contingent of hostiles who 
assisted at the massacre of the eighty soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny in 1866. 
North, with his Arapaho wife, was hanged in Kansas in October, 1869, by 
vigilantes or robbers, while heading for the camp of the Southern Arapahoes. 
■ — "Sketches of Frontier and Indian Life on the Upper Missouri and Great 
Plains," by Joseph H. Taylor, in The Renegade Chief, pp. 224 et seq. (Bis- 
marck, N. D., 1897.) [Some of these statements are certainly untrue. — G. B. G.] 



GOLD IN COLORADO 129 

mitted to Governor Evans a statement that the Comanches, 
Apaches, Kiowas, the northern band of Arapahoes, and all the 
Cheyennes, with the Sioux, had pledged one another to go to 
war with the whites as soon as they could procure ammunition 
in the spring; that the chiefs had agreed to be friendly until they 
procured ammunition and guns and that they had asked him, 
North, to join them in their attack on the whites. 

This statement Evans seems to have accepted without in- 
vestigation, and it apparently made him lose his head. In 
October he had reported that he was confident that no hostility 
on the part of the Indians need be apprehended in the future. A 
little more than a month later he sent North's statement to the 
Commissioner in Washington and declared his belief that the In- 
dians contemplated war. On December 14 he wrote to Secretary 
of War Stanton asking for military aid, authority to call out the 
militia of Colorado, and requesting that troops should be sta- 
tioned at proper intervals along the great routes of travel across 
the plains. He stated also that he had written Agent Colley, 
urging him to keep the Indians at peace but that the tribes could 
not be found ; that they were far away from " their usual peaceful 
haunts," and could not be watched. As a matter of fact, a num- 
ber of Cheyenne villages were camped on Ash Creek near Fort 
Larned all the winter and were constantly coming into the 
post. 

H. T. Ketcham, Special Agent, reported for the fourth quarter 
of 1863 that the Indians were poor, sick, and starving on the Ar- 
kansas River, on Pawnee Fork, and on Walnut Creek. Ketcham 
had been sent to the plains to vaccinate the Indians, who were 
suffering greatly from smallpox. Wherever he appeared the 
Indians were glad to see him and treated him with great kindness. 
Many were living on the cattle of the emigrants that had died 
of disease. Buffalo were very scarce on the Arkansas and the 
Indians were bitter against certain white hunters who had been 
shooting down buffalo for their hides and tallow. Traders were 
swindling the Indians and were buying a few robes that they had 
for whiskey. All the Indians he saw were friendly. 

The only depredation of which we have any record is that 
where a party of young Arapahoes ran off some horses belonging 
to Van Wirmer, a ranchman living east of Denver. When the 



130 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

chief of the party learned of this he at once took the horses away 
from the young men and returned them to the whites. 

Governor Evans was quite ignorant of Indians and it is per- 
haps not strange that he was imposed on by North. He had the 
business of the territory of Colorado on his hands and this in- 
cluded the Utes of the mountains on one side and the Indians of 
the plains on the other. The work that he had to do was so much 
and so varied that little of it was done well. 



xn 

HARRYING THE INDIANS 

1864 

An examination of reports for the plains seems to show that 
up to March, 1864, no information had reached headquarters that 
the Indians were considered unfriendly. General Curtis, who had 
charge of the plains and of the Missouri and Kansas Indians, was 
occupied in fighting bushwhackers and evidently had no idea 
that an Indian war was impending. Some of the officers in com- 
mand of posts expressed the view that the rush of men to the gold 
mines in the spring and summer might cause trouble, as miners 
were likely to be turbulent. 

On the 16th of March Governor Evans wrote to Colonel 
Chivington, commanding the district of Colorado, that Colley 
reported the Indians quiet and friendly, but that they repeated 
former statements that the Sioux to the north intended to begin 
war in the spring. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were busy 
fighting the Utes; the Arapahoes had quarrelled with the Kiowas, 
whom they charged with killing four young Arapahoes who had 
gone to war with the Kiowas and had not returned. On March 
24 General Mitchell, commanding the district of Nebraska, re- 
ported that he had then had a talk with John Hunter, a well- 
known and honest interpreter, who stated that the Sioux and 
other tribes of the Upper Platte were friendly and were satisfied 
with their treatment by the government. On March 26 General 
Curtis wrote to Governor Evans that he should be obliged to 
draw every available man from the plains to fight the Confeder- 
ates. 

On the 9th of April, however. Colonel Chivington reported to 
the Adjutant-General of the Department of Kansas that a party 
of Cheyenne Indians had stolen one hundred and seventy-five 
head of cattle from the government contractors, Irwin, Jackman 

131 



132 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

& Co., from the headwaters of the Big Sandy on the Smoky Hill 
route of the overland stage line.^ This report came from the 
herders in charge of the cattle, but when the matter was investi- 
gated a year later these herders were never mentioned; their 
names were not given and their testimony was never offered to 
prove that the Indians had committed this depredation. On the 
other hand, the Indians declared that the cattle were not run off. 
It is quite likely that they stampeded, as stock often does, and that 
the herders threw the blame on the Indians to excuse their own 
carelessness. It was never shown that the Indians had any- 
thing to do with the running off of the stock. A number of men 
who testified in the matter later spoke of the dispersal of the 
stock merely as a rumor, something that had been heard, while 
Kit Carson in his testimony before the Joint Commission de- 
clared that herders often let their cattle go by negligence and then 
when anything was lost the cry was raised that the Indians had 
stolen it.2 

The Indians state that at the time when Irwin, Jackman & 
Co.'s herd was lost from Sand Creek the Cheyennes were en- 
camped in the sand hills to the eastward on the headwaters of 
the Republican and Smoky Hill. The scattered oxen came 
drifting down toward their camps and some of the young men 
who were out after buffalo found small bunches of the cattle 
and drove them into the camp. 

When the report was received Lieutenant George Eayre, with 
a detachment of troops and a howitzer, was sent out from Camp 
Weld, two miles from Denver, to recover the cattle. His report 
is very brief and merely states that he went to a branch of the 
Smoky Hill and there found a trail a few days old coming from the 
Republican. He then returned to Denver for lighter transpor- 
tation and supplies, intending to follow up this trail. Evans in 

^ So says tho official report, but Bancroft and other writers say the cattle 
were being wintered in Bijou Basin, which is a valley in the ridge country 
lying between the head of Bijou Creek and the bend of Sand Creek. This 
was a famous wintering-place, with fine grass and a milder chmate than on 
the adjacent plains. Part of Chivington's command had gone into winter 
quarters here in October, 1864, and it was from here he began the march that 
ended in the Sand Creek massacre. 

° Report of the Joint Special Committee Appointed under Resolution oj March 
3, 1865, p. 96. 



HARRYING THE INDIANS 133 

his report of June 15 states that Eayre went out after the cattle 
and that one of his men separated from the command and was 
wounded by two Indians. The testimony of Private Bird of 
Company D, First Colorado Cavalry, says that Eayre's expedi- 
tion encountered a camp of five lodges; that two of the Indians 
came toward them armed with rifles; that an advance guard when 
within sixty yards of them called out in salutation and the Indians 
replied. Before the two parties came together the Indians saw 
the command coming up at a gallop in the rear and, frightened, 
ran off to their village, took their women and left. Lieutenant 
Eayre apparently rode around a hill to head the Indians off and 
sent two men to capture a single Indian on the left. The Indian 
shot one of the men and the other ran away. The troops captured 
the camp, took all the dried buffalo meat, and burned the lodges. 

Bird says that they pursued the Indians next day and re- 
covered twenty of the stolen cattle and then returned to Denver. 
Chivington advised General Curtis, April 25, that Eayre had 
recovered a hundred head of cattle. If a hundred were recovered 
they must have been picked up on the prairie, since it is incon- 
ceivable that the Indians could have been driving off with them 
any such number. 

Bird says that no attempt was made by Lieutenant Eayre to 
hold a talk with the Indians. 

George Bent, speaking of Eayre's expedition, says that the 
command came upon Crow Chief's band encamped on the head of 
the Republican, where they had been through the winter hunting 
buffalo in entire ignorance of any trouble with the whites. One 
morning a man named Antelope Skin rode to the top of a nearby 
hill to look for buffalo and saw at a distance a column of cavalry 
rapidly moving down the valley toward the Cheyenne camp. 
He rode back to camp and warned the people to get on their 
horses for soldiers were coming, but the troops were so close be- 
hind him that he was obliged to turn aside and hide to avoid 
being overtaken. The Cheyenne horses had all been driven in 
earlier in the morning and the people, mounting them, ran away 
so that when the troops reached the lodges no Indians were in 
sight. They plundered the camp, destroying what they did not 
care to take with them. They now set out to look for some hos- 
tiles and before long came upon the trail of a small camp of Chey- 



134 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ennes under Raccoon/ which they followed toward Beaver Creek, 
a tributary of the Republican from the south. A party of young 
men belonging to this camp lingered behind and saw Eayre's 
troops following the trail and, hurrying forward, alarmed the 
camp. The people had time to pack up everything and get away, 
leaving their lodges standing. Eayre set fire to the lodges and re- 
turned again to Denver. 

About the same time, April 12, a fight took place between 
Lieutenant Dunn of the First Colorado Cavalry and a small 
party of Cheyenne Indians on the north side of the South Platte 
River near Fremont's Orchard.- Here four of the troops were 
badly wounded, of whom two died later. This party consisted 
of some young men from the Southern Cheyennes who were on 
their way north to join the Northern Cheyennes. The previous 
summer the Crow Indians in a fight with the Northern Cheyennes 
had killed Brave Wolf, and the Northern Cheyennes had sent 
word south saying that they would mourn all winter for Brave 
Wolf and the following spring would send a war party against 
the Crows to avenge his death. If any young men of the Southern 
Cheyennes wished to come they would be welcome. 

Accordingly, early in April, fourteen young men, all Dog Sol- 
diers, left the camp on Beaver Creek and started north to take 
part in the expedition against the Crows.^ Before they reached the 
South Platte they found four stray mules on the prairie and drove 
them along with them. That same night a white man came 
into their camp and claimed the mules. The Indians who had 
found them told him that he could have them if he would give 

1 Mats kumh'. 

2 Fremont's Orchard, so called because Fremont saw a grove of cotton- 
woods on the south bank of the Platte at this place, which from a distance had 
the appearance of an old apple orchard. Fremont's Orchard was eighty-four 
miles from Denver (official distance). There is now a Union Pacific railroad 
town at this place which is set down on the maps as Orchard. It is sixteen 
miles above Bijou Creek. 

^ These Cheyennes were going north on the route used by the Kiowas in 
early days, before they were driven south of the Arkansas, and later by the 
Cheyennes. They crossed the Platte at mouth of Beaver Creek or of Bijou or of 
Kiowa Creek, go up Crow Creek to "Cheyenne Pass," and thence to head of 
Horse Creek, down it to North Platte; up Rawhide Butte Creek, over a httle 
divide, down Old Woman's Fork to South Fork of Cheyenne River, and thence 
to the Black Hills or to Powder River. Cheyenne Pass is a broad, shallow 
valley at the head of Lodge-pole Creek, between the North and South Platte. 



HARRYING THE INDIANS 135 

them a present to pay them for their trouble. The man went 
away to a camp of soldiers nearby and told the oflScer that a 
party of hostile Indians had driven off his animals. 

Captain Sanborn sent Lieutenant Dunn, with forty men, after 
the Indians. Then, according to the accounts, after marching 
sixty miles Dunn overtook the Indians on the north side of the 
South Platte. He divided his men so that at last he had but 
fifteen with him. He met the chief, from whom he demanded the 
mules. The chief said that he would fight rather than give up 
the stock. Then the chief defied Dunn, gave a signal, and the 
Indians fired upon the troops. 

This is the statement of Colonel Chivington, but Major 
Downing, Chivington's right-hand man, testified before the 
Joint Commission of 1865 that Dunn reached the South Platte 
at four o'clock in the afternoon and found the Indians crossing 
the river. Dunn halted to let his horses drink and Ripley, the 
claimant for the mules, and a soldier crossed the river and alone 
went among the Indians to see if Ripley's stock was in the herd. 
When they returned Ripley reported that they were. Dunn 
crossed the river and found the Indians driving their horse herd 
toward the bluffs. He sent Ripley and four men to stop the herd 
and rode forward alone to talk with the Indians. They came to 
meet him and he concluded that they were determined to fight, 
and rode back to his men, and when the Indians were within 
"six or eight" feet he ordered his men to dismount and disarm 
them. The fight lasted about an hour, when Dunn drove the 
Indians into the bluffs and followed them about twenty miles. 
This statement does not agree with Chivington's report. Both 
Downing and Chivington state that at the time it was not known 
to which tribe these Indians belonged. It is stated that bows 
and other arms picked up after the fight were sent to Denver to 
be examined by old frontiersmen so that the tribe might be 

Crow Creek, which flows into the South Platte above Fremont's Orchard, heads 
in and near this valley, and Horse Creek, which flows into the North Platte 
below Laramie, also heads here. This route was a famous one, used by Kiowas 
before the Cheyennes moved south and used by Cheyennes from the time they 
moved south to live, about 1825-30, until 1865. This was evidently the 
route the party which Dunn attacked intended to use. They crossed the 
South Platte near the mouth of Kiowa Creek and struck northwest toward the 
head of Crow Creek and Cheyenne Pass. 



136 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

identified, yet Chivington and Downing both say that the Indians 
talked to Dunn. If they had talked to Dunn he would have known 
the tribe, and, besides, it is stated that he went forward alone 
without an interpreter. 

According to the statements of Indians who were of the party 
the troops charged on them without any warning. Four men 
were shot by the Indians, one of whom they supposed to be an 
officer. Of the Indians Bear Man, Wolf Coming Out, and Mad 
Wolf were wounded. The soldiers retreated and the Indians, 
thoroughly frightened, gave up their expedition to the north and 
returned to the camp on Beaver Creek. They took with them the 
head of the officer, which they had cut off, and his jacket, field- 
glasses, and watch.^ 

These frequent attacks coming all together and not at all 
understood by the Cheyennes made them uneasy and angry, and 
this feeling was increased by the arrival in the camp a few days 
later of Crow Chief and his people who had been driven from their 
camp on the head of the Republican by Eayre's troops. 

This was the beginning of the war of 1864-5, which cost so 
many innocent lives. Nevertheless, during this month Gerry 
reported to Lieutenant Dunn that two lodges of Cheyennes had 
come into his place from the North Platte who did not know that 
there had been a fight. Three Southern Cheyennes also came in, 
who reported that they had camped on the head of Beaver Creek 



* As the official reports mention no officer hurt in this fight and no men 
killed on the spot, although two were mortally wounded and died later on, 
it was thought for a time that the Indians were mistaken. They were right, 
however. Lieutenant Ware, then stationed at Camp Cottonwood, below the 
forks of the Platte, mentions this, although he knew nothing about the Fre- 
mont Orchard fight and heard nothing of any of these fights on the South 
Platte. He says, Indian War of 1864, p. 194, that on the 21st of May (he 
is quoting from a diary written at the time) Oilman, the Indian trader near 
Cottonwood, came in and said that a Brul6 Sioux had visited his ranch and 
informed him that recently a Cheyenne chief had come up north of the Platte 
where he was visiting the Brule camps, showing a cavalry sergeant's jacket, 
watch, and paraphernalia (sic) as trophies, and that he was starting war 
dances and trying to induce the Brules to join the Cheyennes in the war. 
This note from Ware proves the Cheyennes' statement to be nearly correct 
and the official reports and stories of the officers untrue. If the troops had 
driven the Indians off the field and taken the wounded soldiers back to Camp 
Sanborn the Indians could not have cut off this sergeant's head and taken his 
jacket. 



HARRYING THE INDIANS 137 

and that no soldiers had gone out from there. Sioux were re- 
ported camped at various points on the South Platte. 

On April 20 Downing reports that the Cheyennes the day 
before came to a ranch on the Platte east of Camp Sanborn, took 
what they wanted and forced the people to abandon the place. 
One man was killed near this ranch, which was Morrison's, fifty- 
five miles east of Sanborn. Downing says that he understands 
that the Cheyennes discountenance these raids, but that never- 
theless he shall attack any Cheyennes he meets. He instructed 
Gerry, who had reported the arrival of friendly Indians at his 
trading-store, to send them away and to warn them that he in- 
tended to attack every Cheyenne that he met, friendly or hostile. 

A few days later he reported that his troops were all after the 
Indians, who were frightened and doing their utmost to get aw^ay, 
and then that the Indians had run off some more stock and had 
been pursued toward the Republican. May 1 he reported again 
to Chivington, excusing himself for not killing a Cheyenne he had 
captured, having apparently had an understanding with Chiving- 
ton that no prisoners were to be taken. This Indian, who was 
half Sioux and half Cheyenne, was kept alive for the purpose of 
getting information from him as to the whereabouts of the Chey- 
enne camp. Colonel Chivington, then and afterward, as shown 
by his speeches, believed also in killing all Indians seen, "little 
and big." 

A few years ago in the Denver News Major Downing referred 
to securing information about the position of the hostile camp 
from an Indian whom he had captured by "toasting his shins" 
over a small blaze. 

In May Downing, guided by this Indian and by Ashcroft, a 
white man, moved toward Cedar Canyon, north of the South 
Platte, and there came upon a camp of Cheyennes. These peo- 
ple did not know that there had been any trouble with whites; 
the men were all aw^ay and only old women and children were 
in the camp. He surprised the village about daylight, and " or- 
dered the men to commence killing them." ^ The fight lasted 
three hours, and Downing claimed that twenty-six Indians were 
killed and thirty wounded. His own loss was one killed and 
one wounded. He took no prisoners. He ran out of ammunition 

^ Report of Joint Committee, p. 69. 



138 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and so could not pursue the Indians. About a hundred head of 
stock was captured, which was distributed among "the boys." 
General Curtis afterward objected to this distribution of plundered 
property to "the boys," but the captured horses were never re- 
turned to the government. 

General Curtis, who commanded the department, feared that 
the Confederates intended to make a raid upon the Arkansas in 
southeastern Colorado, and instructed Chivington to concentrate 
his forces near Fort Lyon, and Chivington ordered Downing to 
prepare to move all the troops from the Platte to the Arkansas. 
Thus, after having thoroughly stirred up the Indians on the 
plains and begun a war, the troops were all withdrawn from the 
roads and settlements and travellers were left unprotected and 
at the mercy of the enraged Indians. Chivington treated the 
matter lightly enough, declaring that he did not believe the In- 
dians would long remain hostile. But this war from April, 1864, 
to the treaty of 1865 cost the government thirty million dollars. 

Though most of the troops were withdrawn from the region of 
the Platte, Lieutenant Eayre, with the Independent Battery of 
Colorado Volunteer Artillery, remained in the field. He marched 
from Camp Weld, at Denver, seized wagons on the streets of 
Denver, loaded them with supplies, and set out to look for the 
Cheyennes. All these had now come together in one large camp 
on the Smoky Hill, while the Sioux were camped east of them on 
the Solomon River. Eayre appears to have passed between these 
two camps without discovering them or being seen by the In- 
dians. He then moved southeast toward Fort Larned and when 
within a day's march of that post met a large body of Cheyennes 
moving north. These were those already spoken of as having 
been camped near the post all winter, hunting on Ash Creek and 
trading. News of the fight between their tribesmen and the 
soldiers on the Platte appears to have reached them about the 
middle of May, and after holding a council about this they started 
north. The commanding officer at Fort Larned was told by In- 
dians there that these Cheyennes were about to join their people 
in the north and begin war. According to the report of the In- 
dians, the soldiers attacked them. Evans, on the other hand, says 
that Eayre reported that the Indians charged him. Bird, of 
Eayre's command, says that no effort was made to hold a talk 



HARRYING THE INDIANS 139 

with the Indians. The military authorities declare that twenty- 
eight Indians were killed, while of the troops four were killed and 
three wounded. 

Major T. I. McKenny, of General Curtis's staff, visited Fort 
Larned and talked with Ea;yre's men just after the fight. From 
Lieutenant Burton, who was in the fight, he learned that "fifteen 
wagons were purchased on the streets of Denver City; that Lieu- 
tenant Eayre with two mountain howitzers and eighty-four men 
all told went in search of the Indians with instructions to burn 
bridges (villages) and kill Cheyennes whenever and wherever 
found. . . . He wandered off out of his district and to within 
fifty miles of this place. The Indians, finding his command well 
scattered, his wagons being behind without any rear guard, 
artillery in the centre, one and a half miles from them, and the 
cavalry one mile in advance, made an attack, killing three in- 
stantly and wounding three others, one dying two days after- 
wards." The Colorado troops retreated to this post. 

There is additional white testimony which goes to show 
that Eayre attacked the Indians. Major Wynkoop declares 
that the Indians were hunting buffalo; that a sergeant rode out 
from the command and met Lean Bear, the chief of the camp, 
and took him into the column, where he was presently killed, and 
that then the troops attacked the Indians. The testimony of 
the Indians has always been that Eayre made the attack. George 
Bent says that the Cheyennes came north to hunt and were at 
Ash Creek, twenty miles from Pawnee Fork, when soldiers were 
discovered by hunters, who reported the discovery at the camp. 
The crier announced that soldiers had been seen — soldiers with 
cannon. He called upon the chiefs to go out and meet the sol- 
diers and tell them that the camp was friendly. Wolf Chief, 
still living, says: "A number of us mounted our horses and fol- 
lowed Lean Bear,^ the chief, out to meet the soldiers. We rode 
up on a hill and saw the soldiers coming in four groups with 
cannon drawn by horses. When we saw the soldiers all formed in 
line, we did not want to fight. Lean Bear, the chief, told us to 
stay behind him while he went forward to show his papers from 

1 So called by the whites. His real name was Starving Bear — A 'won I 
nah'ku. He was born 1813 and died 1864, and was one of those taken to 
Washington in 1862. 



140 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Washington which would tell the soldiers that we were friendly. 
The officer was in front of the line. Lean Bear had a medal on his 
breast given him at the time the Cheyenne chiefs visited Washing- 
ton in 1862. He rode out to meet the officer, some of the Indians 
riding behind him. When they were twenty or thirty feet from 
the officer, he called out an order and the soldiers all fired together. 
Lean Bear and Star were shot, and fell from their ponies. As 
they lay on the ground the soldiers rode forward and shot them 
again." 

The troops now opened fire with the howitzer, loaded with 
grape, the balls striking all about the Indians. A number of the 
troops and Indians were killed and they fought for some little 
time, until Black Kettle, who was always in favor of peace 
with the whites, came riding up from the camp and stopped the 
fight. " He told us we must not fight with the white people, so we 
stopped," said W^olf Chief.^ 

This evidence from the Indians, taken in connection with what 
the official papers say, is pretty good proof that Eayre made the 
attack. 

The day after this fight the Cheyennes made a raid on the 
stage road between Fort Larned and Fort Riley. They went to a 
ranch on Walnut Creek, where lived a man who had a Cheyenne 
wife. They took his wife from him and warned him to leave the 
country, telling him that the soldiers had attacked them and 
killed their chief and that they were going to kill every white man 
in the country.^ This raid was clearly made in revenge for the 
killing of Lean Bear, but is often spoken of as another proof that 
the Cheyennes were hostile and had been planning war all winter. 

After the raid on the stage road a posse of citizens, gathered 
at Salina, went on the road toward Larned. All the stations and 
ranches along the road were abandoned and had been ransacked 
by the Indians. At Fort Larned Eayre's command was in camp, 
having just arrived. The posse learned from friendly Indians at 



^ Wolf Chief says some of the Indians were so angry that they would not 
listen to Black Kettle but pursued the troops several miles. This is probably 
the basis for the statement I have seen in some accounts that the Indians 
"chased Eayre's outfit into Fort Larned." 

"^Official Records Union and Confederate Armies, vol. 63, p. 661; also a 
better report in vol. 64, p. 150. 



HARRYING THE INDIANS 141 

the post that the Cheyennes that Eaj're had attacked were still 
in camp where the fight had taken place. They had lost seven 
Cheyennes and ten Sioux. 

Soon after Eayre reached Lamed the Kiowas came in. Cap- 
tain Parmeter, in command at the post, had been warned by Left 
Hand, chief of the Arapahoes, and by other Indians, that the Kio- 
was intended to run off the horse herd but Parmeter paid no at- 
tention to these warnings. He is said to have been drunk on 
the day the Kiowas visited the post. Satanta, a Kiowa chief, 
came in and talked with the Captain, and the Kiowa women 
held a dance to amuse the soldiers, and while this was being done 
the Kiowa warriors quietly ran off the herd, including two hundred 
and forty of Eayre's horses and mules. 

The next day Left Hand, the friendly Arapaho chief, came to 
the post bearing a white flag. He wished to assist in recovering 
the horses from the Kiowas, but when he approached the post 
Captain Parmeter ordered the soldiers to fire on the Arapahoes, 
who escaped without injury, but not without losing their tempers. 
Hitherto they had been friendly, but they now went up the Ar- 
kansas and made a raid. From their own agency at Point of 
Rocks they ran off twenty-eight horses, and so frightened the 
settlers in their neighborhood that all abandoned their homes; 
and while some fled to Fort Lyon the rest went up the river into 
the mountains. 

Thus war was begun both on the Arkansas and on the Platte. 
Yet there were some people who thought that the Indians could 
be won back to friendship by judicious action. Major H. D. 
Wallen, of the Seventh Infantry, wrote, June 20, 1864, to the 
Adjutant-General " that an extensive Indian war is about to take 
place between the whites and the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and a band 
of Arapahoes. It can be prevented by prompt management." 

Major T. I. McKenny, confidential staff-officer of General 
Curtis, sent to investigate conditions, reported: "In regard to 
these Indian difficulties, I think if great caution is not exercised 
on our part, there will be a bloody war. It should be our policy 
to try and conciliate them, guard our mails and trains well to 
prevent theft, and stop these scouting parties that are roaming 
over the country, who do not know one tribe from another and 
who will kill anything in the shape of an Indian. It will require 



142 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

only a few more murders on the part of our troops to unite all 
these warlike tribes." 

The tribes were already united. Even as Major McKenny 
was writing this, war parties of angry Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and 
Sioux were setting out to clear the Platte and Arkansas roads of 
whites, and terrible work they made of it. 



XIII 

BEFORE SAND CREEK 

1864 

Some months before any of this fighting had taken place the 
difficulties certain to arise from the invasion by the white people 
and the consequent killing of the game and depriving the Indians 
of their means of subsistence had been brought to the attention 
of the government at Washington. 

In January, 1864, H. P. Bennett, delegate to Congress from 
Colorado Territory, wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
as follows: 

In 1861 a treaty was made with the Upper Arkansas band of Arapaho 
Indians by which they relinquished all their right and title to a large tract 
of valuable land for certain considerations, among which was one that they 
should be protected in the peaceful possession of their homes — on a reserva- 
tion upon the Arkansas River. Tliree years have elapsed and they are still 
wanderers from their lands; the buffalo on which their forefathers depended 
for subsistence are passing rapidly away, by the encroachment of the whites 
upon their hunting grounds, and already the Red Man finds hunger and 
starvation staring him and his in the face; for this and many other reasons 
this band of Indians are anxious to commence the cultivation of their lands, 
but this they cannot do, as a military reservation has been made by the War 
Department within a few months and so located as to deprive them of the 
very lands they wish to occupy. Therefore, they ask that the troops sta- 
tioned at Fort Lyon, C. T., may be removed from their reservation to some 
other point where they will be of more service in preserving the peace and 
preventing any outbreak between them and the whites. 

The delegate recommended that the troops should be posted 
on Indian lands just above the Cheyenne and Arapaho Reserva- 
tion between the whites and the Indians. This would keep the 
Indians from going into the settlements and the whites from en- 
croaching on Indian lands and prevent the young men from getting 
whiskey. 

143 



144 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs forwarded Mr. Bennett's 
letter to the Secretary of the Interior with the recommendation 
that the subject be laid before the War Department, but there is 
no evidence that any further action was taken in the matter. 

The effect of the attacks on the Cheyennes on the South Platte 
was soon apparent. General Mitchell, of the District of Ne- 
braska, reported on May 27 that the Indians were becoming hos- 
tile and asked for a thousand men and a battery of artillery to 
guard the Platte road. The next day Governor Evans wrote to 
General Curtis asking protection for the settlements on the South 
Platte, the Arkansas, and their tributaries. This was a request 
that could not possibly have been granted, since a garrison would 
have been required for each ranch-house or a great body of men to 
constantly patrol the region in question. The ranch-houses were 
four or five miles apart and all exposed to attack. All this should 
have been thought of before the attempts had been made to 
"punish" the Indians. They might easily have been kept quiet, 
but it was now too late. 

Chivington, after having done all the harm he could, had with- 
drawn his troops from the Platte and now on the Arkansas was 
awaiting the carrying out of the Confederate plan to capture 
Forts Lamed and Lyon and raid into Colorado. It was not until 
some time later that he discovered that the story of a Confederate 
advance was a mere rumor. While he was waiting, the Cheyennes 
and the Brule Sioux were making small raids on the Platte. 
Governor Evans reported, June 11, that the Indians had run off 
stock from Coal Creek, ten miles from Denver, and afterward 
had gone east to Box Elder Creek, had run off all of Van Wir- 
mer's stock, burned the ranch, attacked a family of emigrants near 
the ranch, killing the emigrant Hungate and his wife, two chil- 
dren, and another man. This raid, almost within sight of Denver, 
created a panic. The ranches in the neighborhood were aban- 
doned. Everyone fled to Denver and a rumor being circulated 
that the Indians were advancing on the town the people be- 
came panic-stricken, forced the doors of the ordnance store- 
house and took possession of the arms and ammunition belonging 
to the United States. There were no troops in Denver except a 
handful of soldiers who, with a body of militia, started to look for 
Indians, but returned without having accomplished anything. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 145 

The bodies of the murdered emigrants, badly mutilated, were 
brought into Denver and placed on public view. People crowded 
to look at them and from that time most of the people of Colorado 
were in favor of exterminating all Indians. 

Up to this time all the Sioux, except a small band that usually 
lived with the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, had been peaceful. On 
June 19 General Mitchell forwarded to headquarters the report 
of a council held with the Brule Sioux near Cottonwood Springs 
on the Platte. These were part of the Indians whom Harney 
had attacked at Ash Hollow and they were exceedingly anxious 
to avoid trouble with the soldiers. Owing to the scarcity of game 
north of the Platte, they wished to go south of that river to hunt, 
but were afraid they would be taken for hostile Indians and at- 
tacked. They asked that a white man be sent to live with them 
to tell the soldiers who they were. Some of the young men were 
reported to be with the Cheyennes, but it was said that they 
had been ordered to return to the main camp. General Mitchell 
warned them to keep away from the emigrant road, to avoid the 
hostUes, and to make no raids on the Pawnees. Nevertheless a 
few days later a small party of young men, either from this camp 
or from the Sioux who were camped near the Dog Soldiers, went 
east of Kearny to attack the Pawnees. They came upon a 
party of whites whom it is believed they mistook in the darkness 
for Pawnees. At all events, they charged them and killed some 
of the whites. General Mitchell at once ordered out troops to 
hunt down the Sioux and soon forced the tribe into the condition 
of hostility.^ 

On the road along Lodge-pole Creek, between Julesburg and 
Fort Laramie, on June 28, a train of thirty wagons was attacked 
by Indians, and all the mules run off, and the same day a coach 
was attacked on the Arkansas between Fort Larned and Fort Lyon. 

^ Lieutenant Ware in his book describes three councils Mitchell had with 
the Bruits at Cottonwood that spring and summer. The Indians came back 
three times in their eagerness to avoid trouble. At the last meeting a com- 
pany of Pawnee scouts was at Cottonwood and Mitchell brought them and 
the Sioux together and attempted to make peace between them, but had to 
rush cavalry and guns between the two parties to prevent their fighting. He 
made a peace talk, but the Sioux and Pawnees kept yelling taunts at each 
other and Mitchell at last broke up the council and ordered the Sioux to get 
away in a hurry. They did not come back again. — The Indian War of 1864, 
p. 219 et seq. 



146 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The following day General Curtis reports that he is starting with 
a large force to march along the road from Salina to Fort Larned, 
leaving small garrisons along the way to guard the stage line. 
The war had now really begun. Every possible motive had been 
given the Indians to induce them to fight and raid — and they 
were doing both. A short time before this Governor Evans had 
sent out a circular to friendly Indians calling upon them to come 
in and encamp near the posts, where they could be watched by the 
troops and kept out of the fight. He wrote to Curtis on June 16, 
telling him that he had issued this circular, but he did not send a 
copy to Agent Colley until June 29. According to the circular 
the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were to come to Fort Lyon, the 
Kiowas and Comanches to Fort Larned, and both camps of In- 
dians would be fed by the troops. A part of the Cheyennes, 
those living on the Arkansas, were at this time encamped at Salt 
Plain or Salt Spring on Medicine Lodge Creek south of the Ar- 
kansas and near Fort Larned. 

A few days after the fight with Eayre's troops the main camp 
of the Cheyennes on the Smoky Hill had moved south and joined 
the Indians Eayre had attacked on Ash Creek. A few days later 
a part of the Indians moved on south, crossed the Arkansas above 
Larned and camped on Medicine Lodge Creek. They reached 
here in May and found the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches en- 
camped in that vicinity. Not long after this George Bent went 
to an Arapaho camp near Larned and found his father there. 
William Bent had been sent down here with Evans's circular to 
the Indians, and the time when he was seen there must have been 
in June or early in July. George Bent says that his father in- 
duced the chiefs to visit Captain Parmeter, who, being either 
angry or drunk, treated them badly.^ Later the Cheyennes were 
taken in to see Major Anthony, who had succeeded Parmeter in 
command. A council was held at which Major Anthony treated 
the Indians cordially but nothing was decided. The tribe remained 
near Salt Plain until they had held their medicine-lodge and then 

1 A few days later the Kiowas ran off the herd and then the Arapaho 
chief went in with a white flag, was fired on, and the Arapahoes made the raid 
up the Arkansas. This was all apparently in June. Eayre was still at Larned 
and the Cheyennes had just come south of the Arkansas. See also W. W. 
Bent's testimony before Joint Commission. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 147 

the Cheyennes moved north again. At the crossing of the Ar- 
kansas they were met by runners from a Sioux camp on the 
RepubHcan, who notified them that the Indians up there had 
been making raids on the overland stage on the Platte. The 
Cheyennes moved up to the Republican River and began to send 
out raiding parties from there. 

The war that was now in progress was chiefly confined to the 
Platte route, though the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches made 
a few raids on the Arkansas. Now and then a small party of 
Cheyennes or Arapahoes also struck this road, but there was far 
less travel on the Arkansas than on the Platte and fewer ranches, 
so that orders were given to call back the troops sent to the Ar- 
kansas in order to get a force effective for work on the Platte. 
Between Larned and Lyon, a distance of two hundred and sixty- 
four miles, there was only one station, and this was abandoned 
early in the year. The few ranches above Fort Lyon were aban- 
doned when the Indians began their raiding. 

Conditions on the Platte road were quite different. Here the 
travel was much heavier and the road was better protected. In 
Central Nebraska was Fort Kearny, Fort Cottonwood was farther 
up the Platte, and Julesburg above the forks.^ The overland 
mail ran up the Platte and there were stations every ten or twelve 
miles. Between the stations there were ranches, and at almost 
every ranch a store and "Pilgrim Quarters" where travellers 
could sleep. This was also a great route for freight. All the 
goods imported to Colorado, including supplies of food, were taken 
up the Platte, and great freight-trains bound for Utah, for the 
new mines in Montana, and even for California and Oregon, also 
passed up that stream, along which too was the great emigrant 
road. Early in 1864 the rush of emigration on the Platte was 
very large; people were hurrying as never before since the days of 

^ The Overland Telegraph ran up the Platte, with a branch line up the 
South Platte to Denver, the main line running up the North Platte past 
Laramie. The posts on the Platte were: Fort Kearny, 190 miles west of 
Omaha, at the upper end of Grand Island; Camp Cottonwood, or Camp 
McKean, later Fort McPherson, at Cottonwood Springs, 47 miles above Fort 
Kearny; Camp Rankin, later Fort Sedgwick, built in the fall of 1864, one mile 
above Julesburg, 104 miles above Camp Cottonwood; Camp Sanborn, 7 miles 
above Fremont's Orchard and about 120 miles above Julesburg — the most 
eastern post garrisoned by Colorado troops. Late in the summer small de- 
tachments were placed at many stage stations. 



148 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

'49; among them large numbers of men who had left the States 
for fear of being drafted and forced into the army. The rush 
was so great that the Julesburg Ferry across the Platte was blocked 
and many were obliged to go up to the Latham Crossing and other 
fords. To this great overland highway, "the finest natural road 
in the world," crowded with mail-coaches, freight-wagons, and 
emigrant trains, the Cheyennes and Sioux sent their raiding 
parties. The attacks began in July and their eflFects were soon 
felt all along the road. 

On the 17th of July the Indians ran off the horses belonging 
to an emigrant train near Camp Sanborn on the South Platte, and 
took away the stock at the Bijou Ranch. They killed two men 
and wounded a third. They also took all the stock from Junction 
Ranch and Murray's Ranch, and killed five emigrants. The 
troops sent out surprised five Indians on Beaver Creek near 
Murray's place, and recovered one hundred and twenty-five head 
of stolen stock. The 7th of August Indians supposed to be Kiowas 
attacked a train below Fort Lyon, and on the same day a party 
of Kiowas headed by Satanta visited Bent's Ranch on the Arkansas. 
The same day five men were reported killed at the Cimarron 
Crossing. August 11 fifteen Indians, supposed to be Kiowas or 
Arapahoes, chased a soldier riding into Fort Lyon. Major 
Wynkoop mounted some men and drove the Indians off. He 
declared that he would kill every Indian he saw until otherwise 
ordered. Early in August Governor Evans issued a proclamation 
and advised parties of citizens to hunt down the Indians and to 
kill every hostile they might meet. The result of this proclama- 
tion was to put the friendly Indians at the mercy of any revenge- 
ful emigrant who had been attacked by hostiles, and anj^ man who 
coveted an Indian's pony or other property could shoot him as a 
hostile and seize the property as his lawful prize.^ 

On August 8 the Che^^ennes, with some Sioux, attacked a train 
near Plum Creek on the Platte, killed eleven men, burned the 
train, and carried off a woman and a boy. Two days later they 
raided the valley of the Little Blue, capturing trains and ranches 
and carrying off from the Liberty Farm Mrs. Eubanks, her two 
children, her nephew, and Miss Roper.^ 

1 Report of Secretary of the Interior for 1864-5, p. 374. 

^ Official Records, Union and Confederate Armies, vol. 84, pp. 612 et seq. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 149 

This raid caused a panic on the Nebraska frontier. The set- 
tlers all fled eastward. General Mitchell gathered a large force 
and marched against the Indians. He went up the Platte and 
scouted south to the Republican, but found no hostiles. At this 
time, according to George Bent, there was an immense camp of 
hostiles on the Solomon. Here were the Southern Cheyennes, 
the Arapahoes, and the Sioux under Spotted Tail and Pawnee 
Killer. From this camp, according to the testimony of those who 
occupied it, little war parties were constantly starting out, most 
of them raiding on the overland route. The Sioux made their 
raids east of Fort Kearny, in Nebraska, and it was from there that 
they made this famous Little Blue raid. The Cheyennes visited 
the overland road west of Kearny, while the attacks of the Arap- 
ahoes were made on the same road but farther west and on the 
South Platte up near Denver. These raids on the overland road 
were terribly destructive. Many people were killed, horses were 
run off, coaches attacked, ranches burned, and whole wagon-trains 
captured. For over a month the Indians completely closed the 
road. The mail for Denver had to be sent to Panama, across the 
Isthmus and up the Pacific coast, and from San Francisco over- 
land by stage to Denver. 

George Bent writes: 

At this time, as I rode from one camp to another in this great village, I 
saw scalp dances constantly going on; the camps were filled with plunder 
taken from the captured wagon- trains; warriors were strutting about with 
ladies' silk cloaks and bonnets on and the Indian women were making shirts 
for the young men out of the finest silk. 

One morning in August, while most of the men were out after buffalo, 
firing was heard up the river in the direction in which a Sioux hunting party 
had gone. It was thought in the camp that these Sioux were killing buffalo, 
but presently a Cheyenne man named Hawk came rushing over the hills at 
full speed, signalling with his hands that the soldiers were after the Sioux 
hunters. 

About fifty of us ran for the herd and as soon as we were mounted, dashed 
over the hill and came in sight of the Sioux all scattered out with little bunches 
of cavalry pursuing them. As soon as the soldiers saw us they got together 
and started to retreat. We followed them, and from over the hills from every 
direction came the buffalo hunters to join in the fight. No fight took place, 
for the cavalrymen had a good start of us and did not spare their horses. 



150 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Two troopers on worn-out animals kept falling behind and were overtaken by 
some of the Indians and killed. The rest of the soldiers got away and when 
they reached Fort Kearny on the Platte, the officer in command reported that 
he had attacked five hundred Indians near the Republican and chased them 
ten miles, after which the Indians had turned around and chased him thirty. 

This was the fight reported by Captain Mussey, of which Gen- 
eral Mitchell writes August 18. 

Through August the raiding grew more and more vigorous. 
The overland stage agent wrote a letter complaining of the raids.^ 
On August 15 the last coach from the East reached Colorado. 
Coaches from the West gathered at Latham Station on the South 
Platte and remained there awaiting the opening of the road.^ 
About a hundred passengers had gathered here when a rumor 
arose that the Indians were coming up the Platte to "clean out 
Latham," and threw these people into a panic. 

The freighters continued their trips for some time after the 
stages had ceased to run. They moved in large bodies, strongly 
armed, and could defy small war parties, yet about the middle of 
the month conditions grew so bad that the freighters were obliged 
to corral their outfits and wait for better times. Meantime, since 
no supplies could arrive, food grew scarce in Denver and prices 
soared. Flour jumped from nine dollars to sixteen dollars per 
hundredweight and then to twenty-five dollars. At the same 
time a plague of locusts settled down over the land and devoured 
the crops on the South Platte and its tributaries. On August 18 
Governor Evans, by telegraph, notified General Curtis that the 
Indians were killing people within thirty miles of Denver; that 
large parties of Indians were close to the town ; that the roads were 
blocked; crops could not be gathered for fear of Indian attacks 
and the whole territory was in a state of starvation. Flour was 
now twenty-four dollars a hundredweight. Evans asked that the 
Second Colorado Cavalry, then serving in Kansas, be sent home 
to protect the people. 

On the 20th of August Gerry, the Indian trader, stated that 

1 Report of Secretary of the Interior, 1864-5, p. 398. General Superinten- 
dent Otis of the Overland Stage Company reports August 11, the day after 
the Little Blue raid, that he has ordered the stock drawn off the Platte line. — 
Official Records, vol. 84, p. 661. 
* Root's Overland Stage, p. 330. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 151 

two Cheyennes, Long Chin and Man Shot by the Ree,^ had come 
to his house'^ and advised him to take his stock away from the 
river; that between eight hundred and a thousand Apache, Co- 
manche, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors were camped by Point 
of Rocks, on Beaver Creek, about one hundred and twenty-five 
miles from Denver, and that in two nights they would make a 
raid on the river. There were said to be no lodges with this party, 
which was out on the war-path. The old men of the tribes men- 
tioned were said to be in favor of peace, but the young men could 
not be controlled. 

Gerry rode sixty-five miles without stopping to bring this 
news to Denver. The settlers on the Platte were warned. On 
the night mentioned by the two Indians the hostiles appeared all 
along the river. They found the settlers on their guard and did 
not make many attacks, but at some places they ran off the stock, 
among them all of Gerry's herd.^ 

Acting on the invitation conveyed in Evans's circular of the 
previous June a camp of friendly Arapahoes had come in and es- 
tablished themselves on the Cache la Poudre near Latham. They 
were in charge of Agent Whitely. After the settlers on the South 
Platte had to some degree recovered from the frantic terror into 
which they had been thrown by the raids of late August they felt 
a great longing for revenge. No hostiles were within their reach, 
but here were some Indians, friendly to be sure, but Indians. 
Vengeance might be taken on these. A party of a hundred armed 
men set out to attack these friendly Arapahoes on the Cache la 
Poudre. No doubt they would have massacred them, but for- 
tunately while on their way the whites heard of a small raiding 

1 Long Chin, Tsis' sto' on ah" ; Man Shot by the Ree, O non' I a mo' o. An 
earlier name for this last man was Pushing Ahead, Ma It' Ish I mi' o. He had 
been a great warrior, but at this time must have been about sixty-four years 
old. Long Chin also was an old man at this time. 

- Gerry's Ranch was seven miles below Latham, at the mouth of Crow 
Creek, on the south bank of the South Platte. — Official Records, vol. 84, 
p. 843. 

3 Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1864-5, p. 363. August 21 a 
party of Cheyennes ran off Gerry's and RejTiars stock. Only ten Indians 
were in the party. They came from the south, ran off the stock, crossed the 
Platte at Gerry's, at the mouth of Crow Creek, went up Crow Creek twenty 
miles, then turned east and then south, recrossing the Platte near Fre- 
mont's Orchard and going south up Bijou Creek. — Official Records, vol. 84, 
pp. 843, 845. 



152 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

party of hostiles, and turned toward them, hoping to meet them. 
Thus the Arapahoes escaped. 

The Indians held the road from August 15 to September 24. 
It was not until the 24th of September that the first east-bound 
coach left Latham, Colorado. 

While the large Indian village was still on the head of the 
Solomon River the Cheyenne chiefs received a letter from William 
Bent urging them to make peace with the whites. They held a 
council and, after talking it all over, decided that they would make 
peace. They wrote a letter to their agent announcing this de- 
cision, as follows: 

Cheyenne Village, August 29, 1864. 
Major Colley: 

We received a letter from Bent wishing us to make peace. We held a 
council in regard to it. All come to the conclusion to make peace with you, 
providing you make peace with the Kiowas, Comanches, Arapahoes and 
Apaches and Sioux. We are going to send a message to the Kiowas and to 
the other nations about our going to make peace wdth you. We hear that 
you have some (Indian prisoners) in Denver. We have seven prisoners of 
yours which we are willing to give up, providing you give up yours. There 
are three war parties out yet and two of Arapahoes. They have been out for 
some time and are expected in soon. When we held this council there were 
few Arapahoes and Sioux present. We want true news from you in return. 
That is a letter. 

(Signed) Black Kettle and Other CmEFS. 

Agent Colley reported from Lyon on September 4 that some 
Indians had come in from the hostile camp with a letter.^ Of 
this letter there seem to have been two copies, one written by 
George Bent, the other by Edmond Guerrier. One was addressed 
to Major Colley, the other to Major Wynkoop, the commanding 
officer. Later, both Colley and Wynkoop tried to show that at 
this time the Cheyennes were friendly, but the raids made at the 
time proved the Indians hostile. Wynkoop treated the messengers 
who brought the letter with severity, locking them in the guard- 
house and keeping a strong guard over them. That most of the 
Indians were still hostile is quite certain. The two old men who 
had warned Gerry of the raid in August told him that the old 
men were for peace, but the young men were all for war. The 

* Report of the Secretary of the Interior for 1864-5, p. 377. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 153 

letter is dated August 29, and made reply to Evans's circular 
which was delivered to the Indians not later than July 15 by 
William Bent. On the other hand, it is possible that Bent had 
sent them a message later, of which we have at present no record. 

Major Wynkoop, who was anxious to recover the white 
prisoners, set out for the Indian village, taking with him a force 
of one hundred and thirty men, including one section of a bat- 
tery and the Indian messengers under guard. When he reached 
there — on Hackberry Creek, south branch of the Smoky Hill 
River — he found six or eight hundred warriors drawn up in line 
of battle and prepared to fight, but putting on a bold front he 
advanced toward the Indians, sending forward one of the men 
that he had under guard, telling them that he had come to hold 
a consultation with Cheyennes and Arapahoes; that he did not 
wish to fight, but would fight if necessary. Black Kettle and 
other chiefs prevented a fight. A council was held at which Wyn- 
koop stated that he was not authorized to conclude terms of peace, 
but that if they would bring in and turn over to him their pris- 
oners he would take such chiefs as they might select to the gov- 
ernor of Colorado and try to make peace for them. The Indians 
brought in four children, the oldest sixteen, three of whom had 
been captured at the Liberty Farm on Little Blue River, and one 
on the South Platte. The other prisoners were not in this camp, 
but with other sections of the tribe. The Indians agreed to de- 
liver them as soon as it was possible to procure them. 

Wynkoop brought the chiefs to Denver/ where they had a 
talk with Evans, Chivington, and others at Camp Weld. The 
chiefs present were Black Kettle, White Antelope, Bull Bear, 
Neva, and a number of Arapahoes. There seems no reason for 
supposing that either Evans or Chivington promised peace to 
the Indians. Evans's annual report,^ dated October 15, 1864, 

1 Old men say that when the chiefs reached Fort Lyon Colley gave them 
their annuities and Wynkoop a lot of army rations. Before starting for 
Denver the chiefs sent these goods out to the camp on Hackberry Creek with 
word that "everything was all right and that they were going up to Denver to 
make peace." The Indians then started for Fort Larned, intending to winter 
near the post as they had the winter before, but they ran into Blunt. 

2 Evans's report, October 15, pp. 360-5 in Report of the Secretary of the 
Interior for 1864-5. Evans here makes a distinction between "surrender" 
to the military and securing "peace" by a treaty, but the Indians, of course, 
did not understand this distinction. He says he told them he could not give 
them peace but that he strongly advised them to surrender and has since 



154 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

says that he told the chiefs that they were in the hands of the 
military and had better make peace, and gives a letter dated 
September 29, just after the council, written to Colley, telling 
Colley to make it plain to the Indians that he can promise them 
nothing; that they are in the hands of the soldiers. He says: 
" You will be particular to impress upon these chiefs the fact that 
my talk with them was for the purpose of ascertaining their views 
and not to offer them anything whatever." Nevertheless, his 
reported talk to them does not bear out this statement, for he 
definitely told them that his circular calling the friendly Indians 
to the posts still held good. He said in his report of October 
15 that a few of them were for peace, but the great body was 
hostile. They must be conquered. Peace without conquest would 
be the most barbarous of humanity. Commissioner Dole re- 
proved Governor Evans for this report and told him that if any 
of the Indians wished for peace it was his duty as superintendent 
of Indian Affairs to foster the spirit, and do all that he could for 
peace.^ Evans had already gone East, and took no further part in 
affairs. Chivington, however, was eager to fight, and October 
26 telegraphed Major Chariot: "Winter approaches, 3rd regi- 
ment is full and they (the Cheyennes) know they will be chas- 
tised for their outrages and now want peace. I hope the Major- 
General will direct that they make full restitution and then go on 
their reserve and stay there." 

learned that four hundred lodges have actually surrendered at Fort Lyon. 
So this was the status of Black Kettle's camp and the Arapahoes — they were 
surrendered Indians waiting in the hands of the military until a peace was 
arranged. Chivington did not promise the chiefs peace either, nor accept 
their surrender, but Wynkoop, Chivington's subordinate, did accept their 
surrender, and Bent says that after the Blunt fight the chiefs from Denver 
came to the camp on the Smoky HiU and assured the Indians that everything 
"was all right" and that Wynkoop had told them to bring their people in 
near Lyon. Evans says, p. 364, the council was held September 28; the chiefs 
very anxious for peace, even offered to join the troops in fighting the hostiles; 
he, however, reminded them of their refusal to meet him in council in fall, 
1863, of their failure to come in when he issued the circular to friendhes in 
June, 1864; told them their hands were red with blood, that they were in the 
hands of mihtary, advised them to submit to the military under any terms 
they could secure. He "left them in the hands of Major Wynkoop," and has 
since learned that about four hundred of them have surrendered to Wynkoop. 
On page 366 Evans states his hope that the War Department will organize a 
winter campaign to punish the plains tribes. 

^ Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1864-5, p. 400. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 155 

This telegram shows where the enmity between Chivington 
and Wynkoop originated. Wynkoop wished to make peace, while 
Chivington wrote that his new regiment of hundred days' men 
was anxious to make a winter campaign. Chivington's complaint 
to headquarters resulted in the relief of Wynkoop from his com- 
mand and the detail of Major Anthony to command at Fort 
Lyon. From that day forward Wynkoop and Chivington were at 
enmity. 

General Curtis replied to Chivington's telegram saying: "I 
fear Agent of Interior Department will be ready to make presents 
too soon. It is better to chastise before giving anything but a 
little tobacco to talk over. No peace must be made without my 
directions." ^ 

Of all these men who were dealing with this group of In- 
dians Wynkoop seems to have known much the most about 
Indians. 

Two days before the council at Denver General Blunt, who had 
left Fort Larned, was moving up Pawnee Fork with a strong body 
of cavalry, when his advance guard under Major Anthony ran 
upon a small party of Indians and attacked them. Other Indians 
came up and surrounded this advance guard, which was badly 
threatened.^ Blunt came up with the main body of troops and 
the Indians withdrew, Blunt pursuing them for several days. 
One soldier was killed, seven wounded, and one missing, and nine 
dead Indians were left on the field. Anthony had some Dela- 

' From Fort Leavenworth, September 28. — Report of Secretary of the In- 
terior, 1864^5, p. 365. 

^ The accompanying sketch and account from Cheyenne sources will, I 
think, make clear the way in which this fight took place. Blunt in his re- 
port says he marched up Pawnee Fork from Fort Larned, near its mouth. 
The Cheyenne village was on Walnut Creek, some distance west of its mouth. 
The war party was camped farther down Walnut Creek, east of the main 
village. Anthony left Blunt on Pawnee Fork and struck north, encountering 
the war party on Walnut Creek and driving them up the stream toward the 
main village. 

Meantime a party of Cheyennes had left the main village and struck 
across toward Pawnee Fork, intending to visit Fort Larned. They met Blunt, 
shook hands, and turning about started to take him across to the main village, 
which did not intend to camp near Fort Larned but on what was called the 
Cheyenne Bottom, on Walnut Creek some miles northeast of Larned. This 
Cheyenne Bottom was a famous wintering ground often occupied by the 
Indians. The Kiowas sometimes wintered on the Arkansas opposite the 
mouth of Walnut Creek, and the gathering of the Indians in this general 



156 



THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 



ware Indians with him. The report of the Indians is somewhat 
different. Wolf Robe, who was present, tells the following story: 

With five others I started to war against the Pawnees, for we had heard 
from the Sioux that the Pawnees were having a big buffalo hunt near the Red 
Shield River. White Leaf was the leader. He took us down the stream 
about ten miles below the main camp and there we stopped for the night, for 
we expected some young men to join us in the morning. At daylight one of 
the party went out to look at the horses, but soon returned, saying that he 
had seen soldiers riding toward the camp. As soon as he had roused us 
we all sprang up and ran to get our horses. We had hardly time to mount 
before the troops came charging down on us. White Leaf's pony broke away 
and he followed us on foot, the soldiers shooting at us as we ran. As I looked 
back I saw that some of those who were after us were Indians dressed like 
soldiers. I could tell that they were Indians by their long hair. Wliite Leaf 
fought them on foot and we were on our horses. 

Presently, from the main camp where the firing was heard, 
warriors began to mount and ride toward the firing and soon 
there were too many Indians for the troops, who began to fall 
back. Gradually the troops became frightened and they would 
have run had it not been for the fact that with them were some 

neighborhood led to the establishment of whiskey traders' ranches near the 
mouth of Walnut Creek. One of these was kept by Allison, a one-armed man, 
and it is reported that the Kiowas named Walnut Creek No Arm's Creek. 

V 



•> >L 


Anthony's 






K*., V. 


<8i%right 


r War party's camp 




"v^-i^ 








MainviWe/-'~~ 




. ^w.. 11'"' ^s.^- 


Cheyenne BoHom 


^.^s^ 


a I 


It 


-s.o^ 




S\ 


s: 




payine^;„^ 


1\ 


ll 


\Ranchas 


^ ' "^^"^ ^ 


*N:^ ^\ 


=f! 


g >-^a □ 




V=^ 


^^^^•.-. Ft. Lamed ,/ 





Sp^kner__Cr t 



BLUNT'S FIGHT. 



BEFORE SAND CREEK 157 

Delaware and Shawnee scouts. The chief, who was probably 
Fall Leaf, advised the officer to take up a position on the hill, 
and here they kept the Indians off, though they kept circling around 
them, shooting at them with arrows and their few guns, making a 
great dust and some noise. 

Meantime General Blunt was coming up the valley, having no 
idea of what was going on. Early in the morning about fifty 
Cheyennes had left the camp and gone down-stream. In some 
way they had missed the advance guard but farther on met the 
general and the main command. He shook hands with them and 
received them kindly and the warriors turned back and rode with 
the column toward their camp. As soldiers and Indians were 
riding along on the best of terms they suddenly heard distant 
firing, and then came in sight of the hill on which the advance 
guard had taken refuge, and saw several hundred Indians circling 
around its base. 

The general and his troopers halted and sat in their saddles 
staring at this unexpected sight, while at the same time the fifty 
Cheyenne warriors, fearing some treachery from the soldiers, 
slipped away and took a shelter behind the banks of the stream, 
where they began to prepare for a fight. General Blunt was too 
much interested in what he saw before him to pay any attention 
to the Indians who had just left him, and, putting his column in 
motion, he hurried to the relief of the advance guard. The In- 
dians, seeing this larger force, fled. Blunt pursued them, but the 
Indians hurried to their camp, had the women take down the 
lodges and pack their things, and in a few moments were in full 
retreat. The troops kept after them for two or three days, but 
failed to overtake them. It was during this fight with the 
advance guard on the hill that a young Mexican captive, who 
had been carried off by the Arapahoes as a boy and adopted, 
was killed and scalped by the Delawares. This young man was 
thought to be George Bent, whose death was therefore reported. 
A few weeks later he was again reported killed at Sand Creek, 
and the following summer General Sanborn reported him killed 
again. 

Anthony's attack on the little party who were on their way to 
the Pawnees thus stirred things up again and renewed the doubt 
of the Indians. 



158 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

General Curtis, referring to this affair with Blunt, telegraphed 
to Colonel Chivington, October 7: "These are probably the In- 
dians whom Major Wynkoop represents erroneously and unfor- 
tunately out of his command." This telegram has no meaning, 
but perhaps intends to say that these are probably the Indians 
whom Major Wynkoop represents erroneously as peaceful, and 
who were out of his reach. Curtis was right; they were the In- 
dians, now attacked, whose chiefs were at Denver trying to make 
peace. 



XIV 

THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 
1864 

Of what Major Wynkoop did after he returned with the chiefs 
from Denver to Fort Lyon or what he promised them I find no 
official record, but there is evidence in the testimony given before 
the Joint Special Committee of Congress in 1865.^ From this 
testimony it seems clear that Wynkoop did promise the chiefs 
protection and that relying on this promise, and on the circular 
to the friendlies sent out by Governor Evans, they moved in to 
Sand Creek, believing that peace had been made or soon would 
be made. Agent Colley, testifying before this Commission, says 
that the coming in of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was a direct 
consequence of Governor Evans's circular. He says also that the 
Cheyennes had purchased from the hostiles the prisoners they 
gave up. John Smith declares that the Indians went to Sand 
Creek with every assurance of peace promised by the commanding 
officer, Major Wynkoop.^ Smith was interpreter at the Denver 
council. His name is familiar in all Cheyenne matters of those 
early times. Edmond G. Guerrier testified that Wynkoop had 
asked the Indians to come in and had promised them protection. 
They had promised to do so. Nevertheless, before all of them 
had come in Wynkoop was relieved of his command. 

Wynkoop's action with regard to the Indians was strongly 
disapproved at headquarters. By Special Orders No. 4, dated 
October 17, Major Scott Anthony was relieved from the command 
at Fort Earned and ordered to proceed to Fort Lyon and take 
command of that post and " to investigate and report on the rumor 
in regard to the treaty made at Fort Lyon" and "investigate 

^ Report of Joint Special Committee under joint resolution of March 3, 1865, 
loith an appendix, Washington, 1867. 
* Report of the Joint Committee, p. 51. 

159 



160 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and report upon unofficial rumors that reached headquarters 
that certain officers had issued stores, goods, or supplies to hos- 
tile Indians in direct violation of orders from the general com- 
manding the department." This and subsequent correspondence 
indirectly criticised Wynkoop, intimating that he had acted fool- 
ishly, had permitted Indians to approach the post against General 
Curtis's explicit orders and had left his district — going to Denver 
— without orders. This order is from Major Henning, who was in 
temporary command of the district of the Upper Arkansas. Cur- 
tis and Major Henning in their apparent ignorance of Indians 
and Indian matters seemed possessed of the idea that punishment 
must be meted out to the Indians at large but did not seem to 
realize that it was in the power of the Indians to inflict far greater 
loss of innocent blood on the whites than the whites could inflict 
on them. These letters in fact show the spirit at headquarters, 
and it w^as in this spirit that Major Anthony took command at 
Fort Lyon on November 2. His orders w^ere not to make peace, 
and yet he found a camp of six hundred and fifty-two Arapahoes 
within a mile of the post and a camp of Cheyennes on Sand Creek. 
Anthony says that he told these Arapahoes that he could not 
feed them, nor permit them to visit the post, but that if they gave 
up their arms and submitted to being treated as prisoners of war 
they might remain w^here they were. They acceded to these 
terms and turned over about twenty head of stolen animals and 
some old arms, most of them worthless. Anthony fed them for 
about ten days, which was in direct disobedience of his orders, 
and then told them he could feed them no longer and, returning 
their arms, advised them to go hunt buffalo. He says also that 
before leaving the Arapahoes sent word to the Cheyennes that he 
w^as not very friendly toward them. A part of these Arapahoes 
had been receiving rations here all summer, having apparently 
come in and surrendered when they received Evans's circular to 
the friendly Indians. A delegation of fifty or sixty Cheyennes 
came in from the Sand Creek camp soon after the Arapahoes went 
away and Anthony and Colley bought some tobacco for them. 
They said that they had no desire to fight; that they wished to be 
at peace. The meeting was held in the old stone building of 
Bent's Fort. Anthony says he told them that he had no author- 
ity to make peace, as they requested, but that if he received such 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 161 

authority he would come out and tell them. Meantime he was 
constantly writing to district headquarters stating that there was 
a small band within forty miles and that if he had the force to 
do so he would go out and attack them.^ This shows clearly 
that he told the Cheyennes to camp on Sand Creek only in order 
that he might have them wuthin reach if he could get a chance to 
attack them. He had no idea of making peace nor of asking head- 
quarters for permission to make peace. Colley, in his testimony 
in 1865, says that Black Kettle and his delegation for whom 
Anthony and he bought tobacco were at the post only three days 
before the attack. At this time, according to Wynkoop, Little 
Raven, with most of the Arapahoes, went down the Arkansas to 
Camp Wynkoop, fifty-five miles below Fort Lyon, while Left 
Hand, with a few lodges, joined the Cheyennes on Sand Creek. 

Anthony and Chivington have always been blamed for the 
attack on the Indians, and in a sense no doubt they were to blame, 
but the reports seem to indicate that they were encouraged by 
their superior ofiicers. Chivington and Anthony naturally ar- 
ranged the details. On the other hand, it seems clear that 
Anthony was lying to the Indians and trying to keep them in 
a situation where it would be possible for him to get at them at 
once if he wished to make an attack. 

In October Major-General Halleck had ordered Brigadier- 
General P. E. Connor to give protection to the overland stage 
between Salt Lake and Fort Kearny, Nebraska. In order to 
do this Connor purposed to go East, as shown by telegrams from 
him printed in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate 
Armies. He also telegraphed to Chivington: "I am ordered by 
the Secretary of War to give all protection in my power to over- 
land stage between here and Fort Kearny. . . . Can we get a 
fight out of the Indians this winter? . . . How many troops 
can you spare for a campaign?" This indicated to Chivington 
that another eager to kill Indians was likely to take the field and 
perhaps spurred him on to action. 

On November 19 General Blunt, the commander of the dis- 
trict of the Upper Arkansas, wrote to Curtis urging a winter cam- 
paign and enclosing a clipping from a Kansas newspaper, which 

1 Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, vol. Ill, p. 18. 
{Massacre of Cheyenne Indians.) 



162 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

said that it would be an outrage to make peace without first pun- 
ishing the Indians severely. On November 24 Curtis wrote to 
Evans, then about to start for Washington, to urge the War De- 
partment to send out more troops in view of the winter campaign 
against the Indians. Meantime, however, Chivington had taken 
the field and had telegraphed Curtis that the Indians had attacked 
two trains below Fort Lyon and he would clean them out. 

During the raids in August the War Department had author- 
ized the raising of a regiment of hundred-days men in Colorado. 
This was the Third Colorado Cavalry. Early in the autumn this 
regiment marched down the Platte to open the road which the 
Indians had blocked with their raiding parties, and on its return 
camped in the Bijou Basin east of Denver. From here it marched 
in November to join the expedition against the Cheyennes. A 
part of the men who had no horses remained behind. The snow 
was two or three feet deep in the Bijou Basin, but when the 
Arkansas was reached the ground was nearly bare. Chivington 
reached Booneville on the Arkansas November 24, and for some 
time stopped all travel down the river, holding back even the 
mail for fear that news of his movement would reach the Indians 
and thus let them escape. 

After a few days Chivington moved down to William Bent's 
stockade on the south side of the river, where he left a guard to 
see that no one left the ranch to warn the Indians. From here he 
marched to Fort Lyon, reaching that place on the morning of the 
28th, and again throwing out a line of pickets about the post to 
stop anyone who might attempt to leave. Major Anthony was 
evidently glad at the time that Chivington had come to attack 
the Indians. He states^ that he had warned the Cheyennes to 
keep away from the fort, but they persisted in coming and his 
guard had fired on them several days before Chivington arrived. 
In the same testimony, however, Anthony declares that he " made 
some very harsh remarks" to Chivington about attacking the 
Indians, not because he considered them friendly but because he 
thought the force was not large enough to protect the roads from 
the raids which would certainly follow an attack. He quotes 
remarks said to have been made by the Indians on Sand Creek 

1 Report of the Joint Committee on Conduct of the War, vol. Ill, p. 21. 
{Massax:re of Cheyenne Indians.) 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 163 

a few days before Chivington's arrival, which imply that the In- 
dians were ready and willing to fight. His report on the arrival 
of Chivington's force, dated November 28, shows that he fully 
approved the attack on the friendly camp. 

The command left the post about dark. There is much un- 
certainty as to what troops were present, but besides the Third 
Colorado Regiment there was certainly a battalion of the First 
Regiment, which Chivington had brought with him and An- 
thony joined with the Second Battalion of the First Regiment 
and twenty-five men and two more howitzers. Some say that 
Chivington reached the post with six hundred men, others say 
seven hundred. Possibly he had six hundred of the First Cavalry, 
or he may have had six hundred men in all, and something over 
seven hundred when Anthony's command joined him.^ 

The country passed over was rolling prairie with short grass. 
Of the march Dunn says: ''The night was bitter cold; Jim Beck- 
with,2 i\^Q q\^ trapper who had been guiding them, had become so 
stiffened that he was unable longer to distinguish the course, and 
they were obliged to rely on a half-breed Indian. About one-third 
of the men had the appearance of soldiers who had seen service; 
the remainder had a diversity of arms and equipment, as well as 
of uniforms, and marched with the air of raw recruits. About half 
a mile in advance were three men, the half-breed guide^ and two 
oflacers, one of the latter of such gigantic proportions^ that the 
others seemed pygmies beside him. Near daybreak the half- 
breed turned to the white men and said: 'Wolf he howl. Injun 
dog he hear wolf, he howl too. Injun he hear dog and listen; 
hear something, and run off.' The big man tapped the butt of his 
revolver in an ominous way, and replied: 'Jack, I haven't had an 
Indian to eat for a long time. If you fool with me, and don't lead 
us to that camp, I'll have you for breakfast.' They found the 
camp." ^ 

1 Bancroft, History of Colorado, p. 466, says he had nine hundred men, and 
in note on next page says six hundred and fifty hundred-daj'S men, one hun- 
dred and seventy-five First Colorado Cavaky, and a few New Mexico Infantry. 

'' James Beckwourth, a mulatto trapper of early times, who lived long 
with the Crows. 

' This is said to have been Robert Bent, the oldest son of Colonel Bent 
by his wife Owl Woman, a daughter of White (Painted) Thunder. 

* This is said to have been Chivington. 

^Massacres of the Mountains, p. 396. (J. P. Dunn, N. Y., 1886.) 



164 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The camp was at the big bend of Sand Creek and the place is 
also called the Big South Bend. Guerrier in his testimony in 
1865 says there were eighty lodges with four or five persons in 
each lodge. John Smith, who was also in the camp, says one hun- 
dred lodges, two hundred men, and five hundred women. There 
were ten lodges of Arapahoes and the rest were Cheyennes. Very 
likely Guerrier counted only the Cheyennes, as the Arapahoes 
were camped a little apart. The creek bed was two hundred 
yards wide and sometimes much wider; the banks were from two 
to ten feet high and the bed of the stream was perfectly level dry 
sand, with an occasional pool here and there. The officers, 
dealing with a new and unknown countr}^, were confused as to 
directions, and their statements as to movements made cannot be 
followed. 

John Smith says that the attack occurred between dawn and 
daylight, nearer sunrise than daybreak. The Indians discovered 
a large body of troops approaching. Some of the women at first 
thought they were buffalo, but others recognized them as troops 
and ran to Smith's lodge and called him out, asking him to go and 
see what the troops were and what they wanted. At the council 
of 1860 Black Kettle had been given a large American flag, and 
now he ran it up on a long lodge-pole before his lodge, with a small 
white flag under it as a sign that the camp was friendly. Smith 
started toward the body of troops, but firing began almost at once 
and he ran back to the village. The shots were from Wilson's 
battalion of the First Regiment, which had been sent out to cut 
off the herd. Wilson says that in carrying out this order he was 
obliged. to open fire on the Indians. He detached Company H, 
which fired for about five minutes. This firing led the Indians to 
huddle together about Black Kettle's lodge. Lieutenant Cramer 
says that Wilson took a position on the northeast bank of the 
stream. Wilson says the remainder of the command was on the 
southeast side. The troops on the southeast side were Anthony's 
battalion mounted, and behind them the Third Regiment on foot, 
firing over and through Anthony's men. Cramer says that when 
Smith ran out toward the troops an officer called out to his men 
to shoot that man. Smith, when fired on, ran back. Anthony's 
men now started to charge, but as the Third Regiment under 
Chivington kept up its firing over the mounted men, Anthony 




PLAN OP CHEYENNE CAMP AT SAND CREEK. 



166 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

had to move to get out of the Hne of fire. A general advance was 
now made, the mounted men following up both banks, while 
Chivington, with the Third Regiment on foot, advanced up the 
dry stream bed. The Indians, who had stood there confused and 
seemingly unable to believe their senses, broke and fled up the 
stream bed. 

The first Indians killed were White Antelope, then an old man 
about seventy-five years of age, and Left Hand, an Arapaho. As 
the Indians ran up the creek the soldiers followed them, the 
mounted men riding along the bank, while Chivington with his 
foot force moved slowly up the bed of the stream. As Chiving- 
ton's men entered the camp John Smith came out of his lodge. 
Colonel Chivington saw him and called out: "Run here, Uncle 
John," and Smith, evidently greatly frightened, lost no time in 
obeying. He caught hold of a caisson and marched on with the 
troops. At length they came to a place where about a hundred 
Indians, as Smith thought, had stopped and taken refuge in the 
high bank of the stream. A part of the troops — no doubt the 
mounted men — had gotten above these Indians and rushed down 
into the stream, thus cutting off their retreat. The Indians had 
dug rifle-pits in the foot of the bank and thus partly sheltered 
began to fight for their lives. A large number of the soldiers 
gathered here, firing at the Indians, and it seems that even howitzers 
were used. All over the broad valley little parties of soldiers 
who had been pursuing stray Indians into the sand hills kept 
coming up to join the fight, and the firing grew constantly hotter. 

Anthony believes that the Indians defended themselves for 
about four hours, and in a letter written to a friend after the fight 
he says: "I never saw more bravery displayed by any set of peo- 
ple on the face of the earth than by these Indians. They would 
charge on the whole company singly, determined to kill someone 
before being killed themselves. . . . We, of course, took no 
prisoners. ..." Smith thinks there were two hundred soldiers 
here and that the rest were scattered, pursuing small bodies of 
Indians among the hills and plundering the camp. He does not 
think that half the Indians had time to arm when the attack 
began. 

At last, after most of the Indians hiding in the pits had been 
killed, the soldiers drew off and returned to the village. The 



i\ 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 107 

time occupied in the fight is variously estimated, some of the 
officers saying that they left the Indians before noon, others that 
they left them just before sunset, but as the fight began at dawn 
and did not last many hours it is probable that the soldiers left 
them before noon. After they did so the Indians who were still 
alive came out of the pits and retreated up the stream. John 
Smith later visited these pits where the main fight had taken place, 
and says that he saw there about seventy bodies, chiefly women 
and children. The entire number killed in the attack was vari- 
ously estimated by the officers of troops at from one hundred to 
eight hundred, Chivington reported five hundred killed. Bent 
says over a hundred and fifty were killed. Of the ten lodges of 
Arapahoes under Left Hand, they estimated that a chief and about 
forty-six people were killed; four escaped. Of the killed two-thirds 
were women and children. Smith says that after the fight Chiv- 
ington took him over the field to identify the chiefs. Bodies 
were lying in the creek bed, many partly in the water and covered 
with sand, and so badly mutilated and cut up by the troops that 
Smith could not recognize many of them. He thus made the 
mistake of reporting Black Kettle among the dead. Among the 
Cheyenne chiefs killed the most important ones were: White 
Antelope,! Standing Water,^ One Eye,^ War Bonnet,^ Spotted 
Crow,^ Two Thighs,^ Bear Man,^ Yellow Shield,^ and Yellow 
Wolf,9 

The soldiers scalped the dead, cut up and mutilated the bodies 
and took back to Denver over a hundred scalps, which were ex- 
hibited in triumph between the acts of a theatrical performance 
one evening. It was understood that no prisoners were to be 
taken and none were taken, except the two young half-breeds, 
Charlie Bent and Jack Smith. Women and children who had 
asked the soldiers for pity and protection were killed. Lieutenant 

* White Antelope, Wo' kal hwo'ko ma is. 
2 Standing Water, M&p e'vd nl Ms'. 

' One Eye, so-called by the whites; his real name was Lone Bear, Nah'kU 
ak'l yu us. 

* War Bonnet, K& ko yu'i si nlh". 

* Spotted Crow, Ok uk'l wo wo'dlsts. 

* Two Thighs, Nlsh'in o mdh", also called Two Buttes, Nis'so o mln'. 
'' Bear Man, Ndh'ku mdha". 

« Yellow Shield, E hyd vo'hi va Mh". 

» Yellow Wolf (really Yellow Coyote), Oh'kohm hko'wdls. 



168 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Olnej'/ of the First Colorado Cavalry, swore at the investigation 
in 1865 that he saw Lieutenant Richmond, of the Third Colorado 
Cavalry, shoot and scalp three women and five children who had 
been captured by some soldiers and were being conducted to camp.^ 
The women and children screamed for mercy, while Richmond 
coolly shot one after another, and the soldiers, whose prisoners 
they were, "shrank back, apparently aghast." 

Amos C. Miksch, a corporal of the First Colorado Cavalry, 
saw a major in the Third Regiment blow out the brains of a little 
Indian child and saw Lieutenant Richmond scalp two Indians.^ 

Chivington's first report of the affair reads as follows: 

Headquarters District of Colorado, 

In the Field, Cheyenne Country, South Bend, Big Sandy, Nov. 29. 
Gentlemen : 

In the last ten days my command has marched three hundred miles — 
one hundred of which the snow was two feet deep. After a march of forty 
miles last night I at dayhght this morning attacked a Cheyenne village of 
one hundred and thirty lodges, from nine hundred to a thousand warriors 
strong. We killed chiefs Black Kettle, White Antelope and Little Robe, and 
between four and five hundred other Indians; captured between four and five 
hundred ponies and mules. Our loss is nine killed and thirty-eight wounded. 
All did nobly. I think I will catch some more of them about eighty miles 
on the Smoky Hill. We found a white man's scalp not more than three days 
old in a lodge. 

J. M. CmVINGTON, 
Col. Commanding District of Colorado and First Indian Expedition. 
Maj.-Gen. S. R. Curtis, Fort Leavenworth. 

The white man's scalp here mentioned has constantly been 
spoken of by Chivington's defenders as a proof that the Indians 
were making raids just previous to the attack. No one examined 
the scalp closely, except a surgeon, who testified that "it looked 
fresh." 

The day following the battle Chivington remained at the 
captured village and, then sending Major Anthony to escort the 
wounded and take the dead and the captured property to Fort 

1 Report of Joint Special Committee, p. 61. 

2 It was the New Mexican troops, many of them sons of old trappers and 
fur traders, that protected the few prisoners taken. The First Regiment men 
also acted kindly and took little or no part in the scalping and mutilating. 

' Report of Joint Special Committee, p. 74. 



I 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 169 

Lyon, Chivington set out to attack another Indian camp believed 
to be near the Arkansas below Fort Lyon. This was Little Raven's 
camp of Arapahoes. Anthony, after going to Fort Lyon, set out 
to rejoin Chivington, and December 15 reported that he had found 
Chivington's command sixty-five miles below Lyon on the Ar- 
kansas. On the following day the Larned coach came along and 
passengers spoke of a band of Indians fifteen miles below. The 
troops moved seventeen miles down the river finding no Indians, 
but coming upon the camp of the night before. Scouts sent out 
returned in the middle of the night with a report that Indians 
were fifteen miles below. The troops followed them and at day- 
light came upon the camp of the Indians, abandoned but a short 
time before. The troops remained here two days and then re- 
turned to Lyon, which they reached December 11. 

Chivington's troops now returned to Denver, where they were 
received in triumph, exhibiting the scalps that they had taken and 
the trophies from the captured camp. Of the four or five hundred 
ponies and mules taken not one head was turned in to the govern- 
ment. It was testified that the ponies were distributed "among 
the boys." Everything in fact that had been captured disap- 
peared.^ 

In Colorado Colonel Chivington and his men were heroes 
and in the East they were at first highly praised for the heroic 
manner in which they had fought and conquered the Cheyennes, 
but a letter from Agent Colley, printed in the Missouri Intel- 
ligencer, January 6, 1865, soon caused a change of feeling toward 
Chivington in the States. Colley explained the temper of the 
Indians and the good prospects that there had been for a peace- 
ful outcome "when Colonel Chivington marched from Denver, 
surprised the fort, killed half of them, all women and children, 
and then returned to Denver." 

General Halleck, Chief of Staff of the Army, at once ordered 
Chivington's conduct investigated and General Curtis attempted 
to have him court-martialed, but Chivington's term of service 

1 The War Department later made an effort to recover the animala, but 
Colonel Moonhght, then in command at Denver, reported in Januar}-, 1865, 
that only about one hundred broken-down and useless ponies were returned 
to him and that about five hundred more could not be recovered or traced; 
they had simply "disappeared." 



170 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

had expired; he had been mustered out of the service and there- 
fore was beyond the reach of a military court. Nevertheless, an 
investigation was set on foot and Major Wynkoop was sent to 
Fort Lyon to take testimony of officers and soldiers. 

By a joint resolution passed by Congress March 3, 1865, a 
Joint Committee of both houses was appointed to inquire into the 
condition of the Indian tribes and their treatment by the author- 
ities and to submit a report. The committee met March 9 and 
divided up the country where the inquiry was to be made, among 
subcommittees, of which one consisting of Messrs. Doolittle, 
Foster, and Ross was assigned to the duty of inquiring into Indian 
affairs in Kansas, Indian Territory, Colorado, New Mexico, and 
Utah. The report of the committee, signed by J. B. Doolittle, 
Chairman of the Joint Committee, was received January 26, 1867. 
It contains much testimony about the Sand Creek massacre and 
states among other things that the Indians, excepting in the In- 
dian Territory, are rapidly decreasing in numbers and that "the 
Committee are of the opinion that in a large majority of cases 
Indian wars are to be traced to the aggressions of lawless white 
men always to be found upon the frontier or boundary lines be- 
tween savage and civilized life." 

Such is the testimony of white onlookers and participants in 
this unprovoked attack on an unsuspecting community that had 
been promised protection by government officials, and on the faith 
of that protection had put themselves in the hands of the troops. 

We have a little testimony from the other side, for George 
Bent was in the village at the time and has given me an account 
of what happened as he saw it. 

Three days before the attack he had returned from his father's 
ranch on the Furgatoire to Black Kettle's camp. On the morn- 
ing of the 29th he was awakened by a great noise in the village; 
people crying out that soldiers were coming. He sprang out of bed 
and ran out of the lodge. It was not yet day, but through the 
dim gray of the winter twilight he saw two bodies of horsemen, 
one on each side of the creek, charging down toward the camp. 

When I looked toward the chief's lodge [he says] I saw that Black Kettle 
had a large American flag up on a long lodge-pole as a signal to the troop 
that the camp was friendly. Part of the warriors were running out toward 
the pony herds and the rest of the people were rushing about the camp in 
great fear. All the time Black Kettle kept calling out not to be frightened; 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 171 

that the camp was under protection and there was no danger. Then suddenly 
the troops opened fire on this mass of men, women and children, and all be- 
gan to scatter and run. 

The main body of Indians rushed up the bed of the creek, which was dry 
level sand with only a few little pools of water here and there. On each side 
of this wide bed stood banks from two to ten feet high. While the main body 
of the people fled up this dry bed, a part of the young men were trying to save 
the herd from the soldiers, and small parties were running in all directions 
toward the sand hills. One of these parties, made up of perhaps ten middle- 
aged Cheyenne men, started for the sand hills west of the creek, and I joined 
them. Before we had gone far the troops saw us and opened a heavy fire on 
us, forcing us to run back and take shelter in the bed of the creek. We now 
started up the stream bed, following the main body of Indians and with a 
whole company of cavalry close on our heels shooting at us every foot of the 
way. As we went along we passed many Indians, men, women and children, 
some wounded, others dead, lying on the sand and in the pools of water. 
Presently we came to a place where the main party had stopped, and were 
now hiding in pits that they had dug in the high bank of the stream. Just 
as we reached this place I was struck by a ball in the hip and badly wounded, 
but I managed to get into one of the pits. About these pits nearly all Chiv- 
ington's men had gathered and more were continually coming up, for they had 
given up the pursuit of the small bodies of Indians who had fled to the sand 
hills. 

The soldiers concentrated their fire on the people in the pits and we 
fought back as well as we could with guns and bows, but we had only a few 
guns. The troops did not rush in and fight hand to hand, but once or twice 
after they had killed many of the men in a certain pit they rushed in and 
finished up the work, killing the wounded and the women and children that 
had not been hurt. The fight here was kept up until nearly sundown, when 
at last the commanding officer called off his men and all started back down the 
creek toward the camp that they had driven us from. As they went back, 
the soldiers scalped the dead lying in the bed of the stream and cut up the 
bodies in a manner that no Indian could equal. Little Bear told me recently 
that after the fight he saw the soldiers scalping the dead and saw an old 
woman who had been scalped by the soldiers walk about, but unable to see 
where to go. Her whole scalp had been taken and the skin of her forehead 
fell down over her eyes. 

At the beginning of the attack Black Kettle, with his wife and White 
Antelope, took their position before Black Kettle's lodge and remained there 
after all others had left the camp. At last Black Kettle, seeing that it was 
useless to stay longer, started to run, calling out to White Antelope to follow 
him, but White Antelope refused and stood there ready to die, with arms 
folded, singing his death song: 

"Nothing lives long. 
Except the earth and the mountains," 

until he was shot down by the soldiers. 



172 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Black Kettle and his wife followed the Indians in their flight up the 
dry bed of the creek. The soldiers pursued them, firing at them constantly 
and before the two had gone far the woman was shot down. Black Kettle 
supposed she was dead, and, the soldiers being close behind him, continued his 
flight. The troops followed him all the way to the rifle-pits, but he reached 
them unhurt. After the fight he returned down the stream looking for his 
wife's body. Presently he found her alive and not dangerously wounded. 
She told him that after she had fallen wounded the soldiers had ridden up 
and again shot her several times as she lay there on the sand. Black Kettle 
put her on his back and carried her up the stream, until he met a mounted 
man and the two put her on the horse. She was taken to the Cheyenne camp 
on the Smoky Hill. When she reached there it was found that she had nine 
wounds on her body. My brother Charlie was in the camp and he and Jack 
Smith, another young half-breed, were captured. After the fight the soldiers 
took Jack Smith out and shot him in cold blood. Some of the officers told 
Colonel Chivington what the men were about and begged him to save the 
young man, but he replied curtly that he had given orders to take no pris- 
oners and that he had no further orders to give. Some of the soldiers shot 
Jack and were going to shoot my brother also, but fortunately among the 
troops there were a number of New Mexican scouts whom Charlie knew 
and these young fellows protected him. A few of our women and children 
were captured by the soldiers, but were turned over to my father at the fort, 
with the exception of two little girls and a boy, who were taken to Denver 
and there exhibited as great curiosities. 

Soon after the troops left us, we came out of the pits and began to move 
slowly up the stream. More than half of us were wounded and all were on 
foot. When we had gone up the stream a few miles we began to meet some of 
our men who had left camp at the beginning of the attack and tried to save 
the horses which were being driven off by the soldiers. None of these men had 
more than one rope, so each one could catch only a single horse. As they 
joined us, the wounded were put on these ponies' bare backs. Among these 
men was my cousin, a young Cheyenne, from whom I secured a pony. I 
was so badly wounded that I could hardly walk. 

When our party had gone about ten miles above the captured camp, we 
went into a ravine and stopped there for the night. It was very dark and 
bitterly cold. Very few of us had warm clothing, for we had been driven out 
of our beds and had had no time to dress. The wounded suffered greatly. 
There was no wood to be had, but the unwovmded men and women collected 
grass and made fires. The wounded were placed near the fires and covered 
with grass to keep them from freezing. All night long the people kept up a 
constant hallooing to attract the attention of any Indians who might be wan- 
dering about in the sand hills. Our people had been scattered all over the 
country by the troops and no one knows how many of them may have been 
frozen to death in the open country that night. 

We left this comfortless ravine before day and started east toward a 
Cheyenne camp on the Smoky Hill, forty or fifty miles away. The wounded 
were all very stiff and sore, and could hardly mount. My hip was swollen 



/ 



THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE 173 

with the cold, and I had to walk a long way before I could mount my horse. 
Not only were half our party wounded, but we were obliged also to look out 
for a large number of women and little children. In fact, it was on the women 
and children that the brunt of this terrible business fell. Over three-fourths 
of the people killed in the battle were women and children. 

We had not gone far on our way before we began to meet Indians from 
the camp on the Smoky Hill. They were coming, bringing us horses, blan- 
kets, cooked meat and other supplies. A few of our people had succeeded 
in getting horses when the soldiers began the attack, and these men had ridden 
to tlie Smoky Hill River and sent aid back to us from the camp there. Al- 
most everyone in that camp had friends or relatives in our camp, and when 
we came in sight of the lodges, everyone left the camp and came out to meet 
us, wailing and mourning in a manner that I have never heard equalled. 

A year after this attack on our camp a number of investigations of the 
occiu-rence were made. Colonel Chivington's friends were then extremely 
anxious to prove that our camp was hostile, but they had no facts in support 
of their statements. It was only when these investigations were ordered that 
they began to consider the question; at the time of the attack it was of no in- 
terest to them whether we were hostQes or friendlies. One of Chivington's 
most trusted officers recently said: "When we came upon the camp on Sand 
Creek we did not care whether these particular Indians were friendly or not." 
It was well known to everybody in Denver that the Colonel's orders to his 
troops were to kill Indians, to "kill all, little and big." 



XV 

RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 

1865 

Soon after the fugitives from Sand Creek had reached the 
Cheyenne camp on the head of the Smoky Hill^ a council was held 
and it was decided to send a pipe to the Sioux and Northern 
Arapahoes and invite those tribes to join the Cheyennes in a war 
against the whites. The Cheyenne pipe bearers went first to the 
Sioux camp on Solomon Fork and then visited a camp of eighty 
lodges of Northern Arapahoes. These Arapahoes had come south 
in the fall, intending to visit their kinsmen the Southern Arap- 
ahoes, but on reaching the Republican they had learned that 
the Southern Arapahoes had retired far south of the Arkansas, 
to avoid the troops, and as it was very dangerous to attempt to 
cross the Arkansas at that time the Northern Arapahoes had de- 
cided to remain near the Republican during the winter and re- 
turn home to the north in the spring. The leaders of the Sioux 
and Arapahoes all smoked the Cheyenne pipe and agreed to join 
in the war. This was early in December. 

George Bent and Edmond Guerrier, both of whom had been 
in the camp at Sand Creek, where Bent was wounded, set out for 
William Bent's ranch on the Purgatoire. On reaching the vicin- 
ity of Fort Lyon, they saw a number of wall and Sibley tents by 
the river bank above the fort. This sight discouraged Guerrier, 
who thought that they could not reach Bent's ranch without 
being pursued and fired upon by the troops, and announced that 

1 M3,n o'l yo'he', Bunch of Timber, or Grove of Trees, River; the Smoky 
Hill River was so called by the Cheyennes because at the stream's head there 
was a large grove of cottonwood trees, among which grew no underbrush. 
This grove was called by the whites the Big Timbers of the Smoky Hill and 
was on the South Fork of that river, about on the west line of Kansas. Lieu- 
tenant Fitch's report, 1865, gives a good description of this grove. This 
fork of the Smoky Hill was sometimes called by the whites Burnt Timber 
Creek, an evident corruption of Bunch (of) Timber Creek. 

174 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 175 

he was going down to give himself up. He rode down into the 
camp and surrendered. He was not badly treated. Bent and 
the young Indian who was with them made their way safely to 
Bent's ranch and remained there in hiding four or five days, until 
Bent's wound had improved. They then set out to rejoin the 
Indians and found them encamped together on Cherry Creek— 
Cheyennes, Dog Soldiers, Spotted Tail's and Pawnee Killer's 
bands of Sioux, and the Northern Arapahoes. Some small raids 
had already been made on the South Platte and an attack in force 
was being planned. 

The chiefs waited until all the small war parties had returned 
from the Platte and then held a council, at which they decided 
to make an attack on Julesburg. A party of perhaps a thousand 
warriors — Cheyennes, Sioux, and Arapahoes — was made up, and, 
accompanied by a number of women with extra ponies on which 
to bring back plunder, they left the camp on Cherry Creek Janu- 
uary 5 or 6, and set out in a northwesterly direction for Julesburg. 
The march was an orderly one, bands of Indian soldiers being 
thrown out in front, rear, and on both flanks of the column, to 
prevent straggling or any attempt on the part of young warriors 
to make a premature attack which would warn the whites that 
Indians were in the vicinity. The Sioux led the march because 
they knew the location of the ranches and stations near Julesburg 
better than the Cheyennes, who did not often visit that region. 
Besides this, the pipe had been first offered to the Sioux and ac- 
cepted by them, and therefore, according to custom, they were 
entitled to be treated with respect and to be given the lead in all 
movements. Thus the marching column was led by the chiefs 
of the Sioux. The Arapaho and Cheyenne chiefs followed them, 
and the warriors, young men, and women came behind, guarded 
by the soldiers. 

On the night of the 6th-7th of January the Indians reached the 
vicinity of Julesburg and camped some miles south of the Platte, 
among the sand hills. The Indian soldier bands, still on duty, per- 
mitted no noise in the camp and kept close watch on the young 
men to prevent any attempts to slip off and make independent 
attacks. 

At this period Julesburg was a small settlement. At this 
point the overland stage had formerly forded the South Platte 



176 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and proceeded up the Pole Creek and Ridge roads to the North 
Platte and up that stream by way of Fort Laramie and on into 
the mountains; but in 1862, because of Indian raids on the North 
Platte, that road had been abandoned, and a new road established 
up the south bank of the South Platte, from Julesburg to Latham, 
crossing the Platte at Latham and going on thence west to Salt 
Lake City. The Julesburg station was built of cedar logs hauled 
from Cottonwood Canyon, one hundred miles below on the Platte. 
Besides the station there were also the express and telegraph 
office, stables and corrals, a large store and a warehouse filled with 
the stage company's supplies. One mile west of Julesburg was a 
small post. Fort Rankin,^ surrounded by a strong stockade and 
garrisoned by a company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. This 
post was on the site later occupied by Fort Sedgwick. 

The Indian plan was to draw the soldiers of the garrison into 
the sand hills and there surround and annihilate them. Before 
daylight on the 7th of January Big Crow, the chief of the Chey- 
enne Crooked Lance Soldiers, selected seven men, five Cheyennes 
and two Sioux, to go out and show themselves near the fort, in 
the hope that the soldiers would pursue them into the sand hills, 
where the main body of warriors was to be concealed. The seven 
men led their ponies down a small ravine which ran from the sand 
hills south of the river out across the flat bottom-lands and entered 
the Platte below the post. Keeping under the cover of the banks 
of this ravine, the party arrived near the fort and there waited 
until dawn. As day came they saw some men w^alking about 
outside the stockade, and mounting their ponies they rode up out 
of the ravine and charged these men, driving them inside the 
fortifications. A few minutes later Captain O'Brien came out with 
a body of cavalry and some mounted citizens and attacked the 
Indians. Big Crow and his men then retreated toward the sand 
hills, two or three miles south of the fort, drawing the troops 
after them. 

Meantime the main body of warriors was still in camp behind 
the hills. About daylight they heard distant firing, and presently 

1 Established August, 1864. Originally known as Camp Rankin, but the 
designation was changed to Fort Sedgwick in orders issued by Brevet Major- 
General Wheaton, September 27, 1865, presumably in honor of Major-General 
John Sedgwick, who was killed at the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, 
May 9, 1864. Troops were withdrawn from Fort Sedgwick May 31, 1871. 



t 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 177 

the Indian soldiers informed them that the troops had come out 
of the fort and were pursuing Big Crow's party toward the hills. 
All began to prepare for the fight, painting themselves, putting on 
war bonnets, and taking covers from shields. As soon as all were 
ready the Indian soldiers formed the warriors into a column and 
marched them up behind the sand hills. Here they sat on their 
ponies, guarded on all sides by bands of soldiers. As the sound 
of firing came nearer the warriors grew excited and impatient of 
restraint, and at length a body of young men broke through the 
line of soldiers and charged out from behind the hills. Thus 
the plan of drawing the troops in among the hills and there sur- 
rounding them was spoiled, and as further attempts at conceal- 
ment were now useless, the signal was given and all the warriors 
charged. 

At this time the troops were still half a mile or more from the 
hills. The moment he saw the Indians come swarming out of the 
hills. Captain O'Brien faced his command about and started it 
back toward the post at a gallop. Big Crow and his seven war- 
riors at once turned and rode after the soldiers, hanging on their 
rear. These warriors were soon overtaken by a number of men 
on fast ponies, who attacked the troops fiercely and attempted 
to hold them until more of the Indians could come up. Some of 
the soldiers threw themselves off their horses to fight on foot, but 
they were at once surrounded and in a few minutes were all killed. 
The remaining troops continued to retreat, but before they could 
reach the stockade the Indians were circling all around them, 
firing and yelling. The warriors, however, were not in force 
sufficient to hold the troops, and before the main body came up 
the remnant of O'Brien's command had cut its way through and 
reached the stockade. 

The published versions of this affair differ as to the number 
of Captain O'Brien's force. Palmer says O'Brien had thirty- 
eight men, of whom fourteen were killed. Lieutenant Ware, who 
belonged to the Fort Rankin garrison, but was not present at the 
fight, states that O'Brien had sixty men, and that one sergeant, 
three corporals, and ten privates were killed.^ A newspaper 

1 The Indian War of 1864, by Eugene F. Ware, p. 448. Ware's account 
of this affair is unsatisfactory. His account of the second attack on Jules- 
burg, during which he was present, is much better. 



178 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

version published soon after the fight states that a number of 
citizens joined the soldiers in the charge and that fourteen sol- 
diers and four citizens were killed. This would make eighteen 
men killed, the exact number of graves which George Bent 
counted near the stockade when the Indians attacked Julesburg 
a second time some weeks later. 

Just before the Indians charged out of the hills the west- 
bound coach came up the road and stopped at Julesburg station, 
w^here the driver and his passengers alighted to get breakfast. 
Just as they were entering the station they saw the main body of 
warriors, a thousand strong, come swarming out into the valley. 
The Indians were still perhaps two miles aw^ay, but some of them 
saw the coach, and charged down toward the station. The driver 
and his passengers, the station hands, the storekeeper, and 
operator saw them coming, and, leaving the station, they ran as 
hard as they could toward the fort which they reached just before 
the soldiers entered the gate. 

A large body of Indians soon reached Julesburg where some of 
them at once broke into the warehouse and store and began to 
plunder, while others entered the stage station and ate the break- 
fast which was set out on the table and still hot. Bent saw an 
old Indian take from the table a sugar bowl, which he seemed 
greatly to admire, and tie it to his belt, after which he rode off 
with the bowl dangling behind him. The warriors who had 
driven the troops into the stockade continued for some time to ride 
about the post, yelling and shooting, but after a while they joined 
their fellows at Julesburg station. The plundering was now in 
full swing; the women had come to the station with extra ponies, 
and these animals, laden with articles taken from the store and 
warehouse, made trip after trip to the Indian camp among the 
hills. The warehouse was filled with sacks of shelled corn, but 
there were also bags of flour and sugar; and these the Indians 
dragged outside and loaded on the ponies. In the store they 
found the shelves full of canned goods and groceries. The canned 
goods puzzled the Indians. They had not seen such things be- 
fore, did not know what was in the cans, and left them on the 
shelves. The store was well located for all the plains trade and 
the stock was large and complete. There was even a glass case 
containing gold and silver watches. The business must have 
been a valuable one. Some years ago it was reported that the 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 179 

widow of the man who owned this store had put in a claim for 
forty thousand dollars against the government for damages 
caused by the Indian raid and had secured, in partial payment, 
twenty thousand dollars. 

On the other bank of the river, about opposfte Julesburg, a 
herd of cattle was grazing, and while the plundering was going on 
a number of Indians rode across the river to round up this herd. 
The troops at Fort Rankin opened fire on these Indians with their 
howitzers, but without effect. They next turned the guns on 
the crowd of Indians gathered about the station, store, and ware- 
house, the shells passing high overhead without doing any harm. 
This w^as an attempt to frighten the Indians off. The troops did 
not fire into the crowd for fear of setting the buildings on fire. 

One of the passengers in the coach which had driven up just 
before the Indians charged the troops was a United States pay- 
master on his way west to pay the Colorado troops. He had with 
him a large metal money box, and when he fled to the fort with 
the rest of the people from the station he abandoned the box. 
The Indians found this box and knocked it open with their toma- 
hawks. They were greatly disappointed to find that it con- 
tained nothing but bundles of "green paper." None of them 
knew what it was, and they emptied the paper out on the ground. 
Bent secured as much of the money as he could comfortably 
carry. He saw a warrior take a thick bundle of the money, chop 
it into three or four pieces with his tomahawk, and then throw 
it up into the air. He shouted with delight as the bits of paper 
were whirled away and scattered by the wind. After the Indians 
had gone, the paymaster ordered out the garrison and had the 
men search the whole valley for this money. They found bills 
scattered all over the valley, but did not recover half of what the 
box had held. 

The Indians remained until late in the day, plundering the 
store and warehouse and taking load after load of goods into the 
hills. At length, when they had secured all that the ponies could 
carry, they withdrew and assembled at the camp among the hills. 
From here they set out on their return to Cherry Creek, but their 
ponies were so heavily burdened that it took three days to reach 
the village.^ 

1 The brief official notices of this Julesburg affair attempt to make it ap- 
pear that the Indians were driven away by O'Brien's httle force and that no 



180 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Some days after their return from Julesburg the Indians 
broke camp on Cherry Creek and moved north to a stream which 
they call White Butte Creek, between the RepubHcan and the 
South Platte.^ Ever since Sand Creek the Cheyennes had been 
in mourning for the dead; but now the camps were full of plunder, 
scalp-dances were going on all the time, and every one began to 
feel more cheerful. Among the Cheyennes was a large faction 
headed by Black Kettle, which still opposed making war on the 
whites. These Cheyennes had always been opposed to the war, 
and even after the Sand Creek massacre they still held firm for 
peace. Here in the new camp on White Butte Creek the chiefs 
of the three tribes held another council and decided to make a 
great raid along the South Platte, and then move north to Powder 
River and join the Northern Cheyennes and the Ogallala Sioux, 
who also were hostile to the whites. When Black Kettle and his 
party heard of this decision they announced that they intended 
to return south of the Arkansas and remain in camp there until a 
new peace could be arranged. There were eighty lodges in this 
band under Black Kettle, and they started south the same day 
that the rest of the Indians began their march toward the Platte. 

About the 26th of January the Indians broke camp on White 
Butte Creek and started north toward the South Platte.^ The 
village with the women and children and part of the men struck 
due north, intending to reach the river about twenty-five miles 
west of Julesburg, while a Cheyenne war party went northwest to 

plundering was done. Lieutenant Ware, who returned to Julesburg a day or 
two after the fight, states that the Indians were greatly alarmed by the Sand 
Creek affair; that they fled north and attempted to cross the Platte at Jules- 
burg, but were attacked and driven back south by O'Brien and his cavalry. 
Ware does not say a word about any plundering being done; he imphes that 
the Indians fled south immediately after their fight with O'Brien. Root's 
list embraces damages suffered in both Julesburg raids. 

^ Perhaps the stream now called Frenchman's, or Whitemen's, Fork. 

^ Immediately after the Julesburg raid, January 7, General Mitchell, com- 
manding on the Platte, stripped the stage hne of all troops and collected 
some five hundred cavalry and several gims at Camp Cottonwood. From 
here he set out, January 16, to attack the Indians in their camps on the Re- 
publican. On the 19th he went into camp at a place he calls the Big Timbers 
of the RepubUcan, where he found signs of a large Indian village recently 
abandoned. This appears to have been the very camp on Cherry Creek the 
Indians occupied before and after the Julesburg raid, and which they aban- 
doned only a few days before Mitchell reached the Republican. The precise 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 181 

raid above Julesburg, a Sioux party northeast to raid below Jules- 
burg, and an Arapaho party about north to raid near Julesburg. 
The village and these war parties all struck the road the same 
day, January 28, and in a few hours completely wrecked about 
seventy-five miles of road, burning stations and ranches, captur- 
ing wagon-trains, and destroying the telegraph line. 

The village struck the South Platte at Harlow's ranch, twenty- 
three miles west of Julesburg, and while it was being crossed to 
the north bank of the river on the ice, the warriors attacked and 
burned the ranch. This ranch, like most of those along the Platte 
in those days, had attached to it a store at which the emigrants 
and freighters traded. The store was a frame structure, built 
in front of a strong log building, in which the family lived, with a 
corral back of it. When the Indians appeared, the people at the 
ranch ran into the log building and opened fire through loopholes. 
The Indians gathered in front of the store and set it on fire. As 
the flames spread the log building took fire, and soon after two 
white men and a woman ran out. The men were killed and the 
woman was taken alive. She was captured by a Sioux named Cut 
Belly, and the Cheyennes believe that she is the woman who was 
taken into Fort Laramie in the spring of 1865 and surrendered 
by two Sioux chiefs, named Big Crow and Blackfoot, but this ap- 
pears to be a mistake.^ During the attack on this ranch the In- 
dians secured some whiskey and many of them became drunk. 
An Arapaho was shot in the head and fatally wounded by a 

location is uncertain, but the Arickaree Fork of the Republican was sometimes 
called Timber Creek or Thickwood. The Pawnees called it Liik'Is ti'kurl — 
"much wood," or "timber is abundant." Mitchell's scouting parties exam- 
ined the country in every direction, but failed to locate the Indians, who were 
then encamped on White Butte Creek, not more than a day's march north- 
west of Mitchell's main camp. Failing to find the Indians, Mitchell returned 
to the Platte, reaching Cottonwood January 26. Two days later, before he 
had had time to redistribute his troops along the hne, he received news by 
wire that the Indians had struck the road above him and had "cleaned out" 
nearly a hundred miles of it. See Official Records, vol. 101, reports, January 
16-28; also Ware. 

^ The official reports all agree that the woman surrendered at Laramie 
was Mrs. Eubanks, captured on the Little Blue, August 11, 1864. The two 
Sioux, Two Face {sic) and Blackfoot, were friends of the whites. They had 
bought the woman and her child at their own expense from the Indiana 
who had captured them and had brought them to the fort and given them up 
to prove their friendhness. The drunken officer in command of the post 
ordered the two Indians hanged in chains, and this was done. 



182 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

drunken Cheyenne. While the men were fighting and drinking 
at this ranch, the women and children had crossed the river and 
set up the lodges on the north bank. The camp was a very large 
one, extending three or four miles along the river. Below it a small 
stream, Moore's Creek, flows into the Platte from the north, and 
above it another unnamed creek enters it also from the north. 

Early on the morning of the day on which the village crossed 
the Platte at Harlow's ranch, a war party of one hundred Chey- 
ennes, which George Bent had joined, struck the road at the Wash- 
ington ranch, about fifty miles west of Julesburg and three miles 
east of Valley stage station. At this ranch the Indians ran off 
some mules and five hundred head of cattle, at the same time setting 
fire to a stack of one hundred tons of government hay, valued at 
fifty dollars a ton. There was a company of cavalry at Valley 
Station, but the troops made no attempt to interfere with the 
Indians, who moved off down the valley, driving the cattle ahead 
of them. They abandoned the lean animals and kept only the 
best ones. These they crossed over on the ice to the north bank 
and went into camp among the bluffs, about ten miles below the 
ranch. Lieutenant Kennedy at Valley Station reported that he 
attacked the Indians with his company, killing twenty warriors 
and recapturing four hundred head of cattle. The Indians, how- 
ever, state that the troops came down the river during the night 
and rounded up the lean cattle that had been abandoned. In 
the morning the Indians saw the troops returning up the river, 
and some of the warriors crossed on the ice and attacked the 
soldiers, wounding two of them. The Cheyennes speak of this 
as a small brush in which no one was killed on either side. 

At this time the South Platte road was the most thickly set- 
tled part of the plains. Besides the stage stations placed along 
the road at distances of ten to fifteen miles apart, there were many 
ranches and stores. The branch telegraph line to Denver fol- 
lowed this road, and many large wagon-trains loaded with goods 
for Denver and Salt Lake were proceeding west on the day the 
Indians struck the line. The Indians remained encamped on the 
north bank of the river from January 28 to February 2, and 
during these six days the war parties swept up and down the road, 
burning stations and ranches, destroying the telegraph line, cap- 
turing trains, and running off cattle. From the first day of the 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 183 

raids the coaches ceased to run, and none of them was captured. 
Except one company at Julesburg and another at Valley, fifty 
miles west, there were no troops along the line when the raids 
began, and of these companies neither was strong enough to 
check the Indians. 

The villages were now filled with plunder. The Indians had 
never before lived so well. In the camps of the three tribes were 
many fat beeves and great quantities of flour, sugar, bacon, coffee, 
and all kinds of white man's food. In the past the Indians had 
tasted such things only on rare occasions. In speaking of this 
camp on the South Platte, George Bent says: "I never saw so 
much plunder in an Indian camp as there was in this one. Be- 
sides all the ranches and stage stations which had been plundered 
— and most of these places had stores at which the emigrants and 
travellers traded — two large wagon-trains had been captured west 
of Julesburg. The camp was well supplied with fresh beef, and 
there was a large herd of cattle on the hoof. The Indians had 
hitched their ponies to some of the wagons and brought them to 
camp loaded with sacks of flour, corn-meal, rice, sugar, and coffee; 
they had crates of hams and bacon, boxes of dried fruit, and big 
tins of molasses. Then there were boots and shoes, clothing, 
bolts of cloth and silks, and also hardware. About the only thing 
the Indians did not take was a wagon-train loaded with heavy 
mining-machinery. Most of these articles were new to the In- 
dians and they were constantly bringing things to me, to ask 
what they were for. I remember an old man bringing me a box 
and asking what was in it. It was full of candied citron." Dur- 
ing these raids the war parties were often out at night, and when 
they missed their way they would ride to high ground and look 
for the camp-fires in the big village. These fires could be seen 
for many miles up and down the river. When the fires were not 
in sight, the warriors would halt and listen for the drums beating 
in the village, where the scalp dances w^ere going on. On a still 
night these drums could be heard miles away. 

During these raids a party of young Cheyennes met with nine 
men who had belonged to the Third Colorado Cavalry (hundred- 
days men) and had taken part in the Sand Creek affair. These 
men had been mustered out of service and were on their way east 
when the Cheyennes met them on the South Platte and killed 



184 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

them all. After the fight the Cheyennes found in the valises 
belonging to these men the scalps of two Cheyennes, White Leaf 
and Little Wolf^ — son of Two Thighs — who had been killed at 
Sand Creek. Little Wolf's scalp was recognized at once by a 
peculiar little shell which he had always worn, still attached to 
the hair. White Leaf's scalp was known by the light color of 
the hair. The white men had many other trophies from Sand 
Creek, which they were taking home to the States, and when the 
Indians saw all these things they were so angry that they cut the 
bodies of the dead men to pieces. Little Bear and Touching Cloud, 
the latter still living in 1909, were with this war party. 

The Indians remained but six days in the camp on the north 
bank of the South Platte, but old people who were there say that 
so many strange events were crowded into these days that the 
time seemed much longer than it really was.^ On the morning of 
February 2 the camp was broken up and the village started for 
the North Platte, moving about due north toward Lodge-pole 
Creek, and while it was moving in that direction a war party 
of about a thousand men rode down the South Platte to make a 
second attack on Julesburg. The Indians employed the same 
tactics as on the first visit to Julesburg, sending a small party of 
warriors close to the fort to draw the soldiers out; but the soldiers 
had learned caution and all attempts to lure them outside of their 
stockade failed. The main body of Indians now came out of their 
concealment, and after circling around the post for some time, 
shooting and yelling, they all rode down to Julesburg and began 
to plunder the store and warehouse again. In the warehouse 

^ Oh'kum hka'kit, Little Coyote. 

^ Colonel Livingston's report of February 5 gives the following partial list 
of depredations committed by the Indians during these raids along the Platte : 

"Beaver Creek stage station burned Jan. 14; Godfrey's Ranch attacked 
Jan. 14; Morrison's American Ranch burned Jan. 15; seven whites killed; 
Mrs. Morrison and child missing; Wisconsin Ranch burned Jan. 14; Wasliing- 
ton Ranch attacked Jan. 27; LiUian Springs Ranch attacked and burned 
Jan. 27; Gittrell's Ranch burned Jan. 25; 500 cattle run off and 100 tons 
of government hay burned at Moore's Ranch near Valley Station Jan. 28; 
Harlow's Ranch, Buffalo Springs Ranch and Spring Hill Station bm-ned 
Jan. 28. Buler's Ranch and Julesburg burned and a train of 22 wagons 
captured Feb. 2; telegraph line destroyed and all the cattle — 1,500 head — 
between Julesburg and Washington Ranch run off." — Official Records, vol. 
101, pp. 40, 41. Lieutenant Ware gives further details and mentions three 
more tr ains captured. Root mentions other depredations. 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 185 

they found a large supply of shelled corn in bags, and this they 
packed on their ponies and took across to the north side of the 
river, sanding a road across the ice so that the unshod ponies 
should not slip. After they had plundered the buildings they 
set them on fire, burning them slowly, one by one, in the hope of 
exasperating the troops into coming out to fight; but the troops 
contented themselves with firing shells into the crowd gathered 
about the burning buildings. 

After the buildings had been burned, most of the Indians 
crossed to the north bank of the river and went into camp a mile 
above Julesburg, and just opposite Fort Rankin; while at the 
same time a large war party of Cheyennes and Arapahoes started 
up the river on a raid and a second large party of Sioux went down 
the river. Near the ruins of Gittrell's ranch, nine miles above 
Julesburg, the Cheyennes captured two large wagon-trains bound 
for Denver, one loaded with heavy mining-machinery, the other 
with bottled liquors. After making this raid the Cheyennes and 
Arapahoes crossed the Platte and rejoined the village at the 
crossing of Lodge-pole Creek on February 3. The main body of 
the Julesburg raiders camped on the north side of the river op- 
posite Fort Rankin during that night, holding scalp dances 
around a large fire in their camp, keeping up the drumming and 
singing until nearly daylight, while the anxious soldiers across the 
river watched them from the roofs of the buildings inside the 
stockade. About dawn on the 3d the Indians broke camp and 
moved up Lodge-pole Creek, destroying the telegraph line that 
ran up that road and rejoining the village at Pole Creek Crossing. 

When the village left the South Platte on the morning of 
February 2 and started north, the Sioux led the way. The Chey- 
ennes did not know the country in this vicinity very well, but the 
Sioux were familiar with it and knew all the best routes and camp- 
ing places. The Sioux knew that soldiers were stationed on the 
North Platte, and when the village started north a body of scouts 
was sent on ahead to watch for these troops, w^hile another body 
was left behind to act as rear guard and warn the village if troops 
from the South Platte made their appearance. The Indians did 
not move in "Indian file," as most white people have been taught 
to think is the ordinary Indian mode of travel; they moved in a 
wide, irregular column, scattered out all over the country, making 



186 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

a trail a mile or more broad. Some of the old men or chiefs always 
headed the march. They knew the whole country, and travelling 
by landmark and direction, they struck across it from point to 
point, without regard to trails or roads. When the old men at the 
head of the column reached a good camping-place, they halted and 
dismounted, calling out: "Camp here," and as the women came 
up they unpacked the ponies and put up the lodges. If the camp 
was only for a single night, the old men would say : " Camp here, 
one sleep," and then the women would unpack but a few things; 
just what was required for the one night. During this move to 
the north they had a large number of wagons loaded with plunder. 
They had tied ponies to the wagons, using long rawhide and 
twisted buffalo-hair lariats in place of harness; but as the Indians 
had had no experience in driving and the ponies were wild and 
unused to drawing wheeled vehicles, the wagons caused much 
trouble. They kept zigzagging all over the prairie, and the In- 
dians soon abandoned them and packed the plunder on the ponies' 
backs. 

The night of February 2 the village encamped on the little 
divide between the South Platte and Lodge-pole Creek. On the 
3d they reached Lodge-pole Creek at a point about twenty-five 
or thirty miles northwest of Julesburg, and here the warriors 
who had burned Julesburg and raided the road came in with 
their plunder. On the morning of the 4th the stream was crossed 
two miles below the old Overland Stage Road Crossing of Pole 
Creek. This day a hard march was made over the high, dry 
ridge which lies between Lodge-pole Creek and the North Platte. 
That night the lodges were set up on a small stream not far east 
of ]\Iud Springs, and near the old overland stage station and 
ranch which stood in a little hollow near the head of a small 
eastern branch of Pumpkinseed Creek, known to the Sioux as 
Muddy Spring Creek. ^ The ranch was the only place at the 
time occupied by whites between the South and North Platte. 
There were here a telegraph station, a few soldiers, and some 
herders who had charge of a herd of cattle and some horses and 
mules. On the morning of the 4th the advance party of Indian 
scouts came upon Mud Springs and ran off the herd of cattle 

^ Mud Springs ranch was at or very near the site of the present town of 
Simla, Nebraska. 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 187 

and twenty head of horses and mules from a creek some distance 
from the ranch. They made no attack this da}'. 

The operator at once telegraphed to Camp Mitchell and Fort 
Laramie for aid, and troops were immediately started from both 
posts, marching night and day, to the relief of the men at the 
ranch. Lieutenant Ellsworth left Camp Mitchell, fifty-five miles 
west of Mud Springs, with thirty-six men of the Eleventh Ohio 
Cavalry, and after marching all night reached the ranch about 
daylight on the 5th. 

Before day that morning, February 5, a small party of warriors 
left the Indian village and went to the ranch. Later a larger 
force followed them, and when this second body came up they 
found the first party engaged with the troops. A number of 
horses and mules were shut up in the corral and the white men 
were inside the log ranch building, firing on the Indians through 
loopholes. The Indians crept up as near to the building as they 
could get, keeping under cover, and opened fire with arrows and 
bullets. The firing went on until about noon, neither side being 
able to see what damage was done to the other. At last the 
troops ceased fire — the Indians thought they had run out of am- 
munition — and in order to divert attention from themselves turned 
all the stock out of the corral. The horses and mules rushed off, 
scattering in every direction; the young warriors pursuing them, 
each man doing his best to touch as many animals as he could. 
If a man touched a horse with his whip, bow, or any other imple- 
ment held in his hand, that animal belonged to him, and all the 
Indians recognized his claim. Satisfied with the capture of the 
stock — all of the animals were branded U. S. — and having little 
hope of taking the ranch, the Indians now returned to the camp, 
which in the meantime had been moved farther to the north and 
was now at some springs on the head of a stream known at that 
time as Rush Creek, but at the present day called Deep Holes 
Creek.^ 

During that night Colonel Collins reached Mud Springs with 
twenty-five picked men from Fort Laramie. About dawn the 
Indians came riding over the hills from every direction and down 

^ This camp was on a small eastern branch of Deep Holes Creek, still 
known as Camp Creek. Camp Creek Springs (old Rush Creek Springs), at 
which the village was located, are near the head of this small branch. 



188 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

into the Mud Springs hollow. Here they attempted to cut off 
some of Collins's men who had lagged on the road, but soon after 
a hundred more of the Colonel's command came up, and all 
reached the ranch in safety. The Indians now attacked in force, 
creeping up under cover to points very near the ranch and corral. 
A body of about two hundred came up under cover of a hill and 
some ravines and began to fire arrows into the air, which came 
down upon the corral at an angle, striking many men and horses. 
The troops made a sally, drove the Indians off and, near the top 
of the hill, dug a rifle-pit which they held. At 2 p. \i. the Indians 
began to retire into the hills, but many were in sight until dark. 
During the day some Mexicans or whites were noticed among the 
warriors. 

During this day, the 6th, the Indians removed their villages 
across the North Platte and formed a new camp some miles north 
of the river, among the high bluffs at the head of Brown's Creek. 
On the 7th Colonel Collins sent out a scouting party to look for 
the Indians, and on the 8th he set out with his whole command 
and the wagon-train. He found the abandoned camp of the 
Indians at Rush Creek Springs. Here a hundred cattle had 
been killed and the ground was strewn with empty 03'ster cans 
and other debris. Collins followed the trail down the creek to 
the North Platte at the point where the village had crossed. In 
his report he implies that he was pursuing the Indians, but, of 
course, he was not doing that. He had less than two hundred 
men, the Indians at least a thousand, and, according to his own 
report, nearer three thousand. On reaching the North Platte 
he was at once discovered by the Indians, who recrossed the river 
on the ice and attacked him. 

The Indians, having camped among the high bluffs on the 
north side of the river, thought that they had seen the last of the 
soldiers, and began preparing for their march to the Black Hills. 
Criers passed through the camps to announce that the chiefs had 
decided to remain here four days to rest the ponies, because the 
next camping-place was far away to the north, to be reached only 
by a long hard march through the sand hills. That night, as 
usual, dances were going on in every part of the village. The 
moon was full. The drums were beating and the echoes com- 
ing back from the high hills among which the camp stood. Some 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 189 

time after noon the next day a mounted warrior was seen on the 
bluff south of the camp, signalhng with his robe that soldiers were 
in siglit in the Platte valley. He kept signalling, " Enemies," and 
then "Across the river." 

There was a rush for the horses, each man anxious to start as 
soon as possible, and a few moments later the mounted men in 
groups were rushing across the bluffs and down into the valley. 
George Bent says: "When I had mounted I rode to the bluffs, 
whence I had a fine view of the valley, here several miles wide, 
perfectly flat, with the frozen Platte winding through it. On the 
south side of the river I saw a train of white-topped wagons mov- 
ing along the road under an escort of cavalry, and toward this 
train the Indians were hurrying, looking like a swarm of little 
black ants, crawling across the river on the ice. Looking through 
my field-glasses I could see that there were four groups or com- 
panies of cavalry escorting the wagons. I watched them move 
on until they reached the stream on whose head our camp had 
stood the day before, and here in the angle formed by the junction 
of the creek with the river, they halted, corralled the wagons, and 
began to prepare to fight." 

The wagons had been corralled by Colonel Collins on a piece 
of level ground surrounded by ridges and knolls among which the 
soldiers dug rifle-pits, forming a circle around the wagons. When 
the Indians first crossed the river they dashed up boldly, ap- 
parently bent on stampeding the horses and mules, but the sol- 
diers in the rifle-pits soon drove them back, and they then took 
cover behind the ridges and knolls, creeping up as close as they 
could to the wagons. The fight now settled down to firing by 
both sides, from cover. A party of Indians had crept along the 
ice on the river, under cover of the high banks, and reached a 
position in rear of the troops. They opened a galling fire on the 
wagons. The troops stood the fire for some time; then a de- 
tachment of cavalry came out of the corral, leading their horses, 
mounted, formed in line, and charged toward the Indians hidden 
behind the bank. The warriors saw the troops coming and at 
once mounted to get out of the way of the charge. Yellow 
Nose,^ always a little man, and at that time a mere boy, was too 

1 Yellow Nose was a Ute captive taken with his mother on the Rio Grande 
about the year 1854. He was brought up by old Spotted Wolf of the Northern 




Fremo"^^,oO Ashcrofls Raj 



COUNTRY RAIDED DECEMBER, 1864, TO FEBRUARY, 1865, SHOWING 
STAGE AND TELEGRAPH LINES AND RANCHES. 



COUNTRY RAIDED DECEMBER, 1864, TO FEBRUARY, 1865. SHOWING 
STAGE AND TELEGRAPH LINES AND RANCHES. 

The stage stations going west were: 

O'Fallon's BlufiFs. 

Alkali Lake, 15 miles west. 

Diamond Springs, near old Lower Crossing, 25 miles west. 

Elbow Station and Butte Station, probably then abandoned. 

Julesburg, or Upper Crossing, was 1 mile east of tlie mouth of Lodge-pole Creek, 

about a mile east of Fort RanMn, 456 miles west of Atchison, Kansas, and 197 

miles east of Denver. 

Distances from Julesburg west: 

Gittrell's Ranch, 9 miles. 

Antelope Stage Station, 12 miles, according to stage company; 16 miles according to 
Colonel Livingston's report. 

Buffalo Springs Ranch — burned at end of January — 19 miles. 

Harlow's Ranch, 23 miles west of Julesburg and 27 miles east of Valley. 

Spring HiU Station, 25 miles west of Julesburg. 

LilUan Springs Ranch, 34 miles. 

Dennison's Station, 38 miles. 

Moore's Washington ranch, about 3 miles east of Valley Station. 

Valley Station, exactly 50 miles west of Julesbiu-g. Small garrison liere January- 
February. 

American Ranch — a stage station — 65 miles west of Julesburg. This was called 
Kelly's American Ranch, also Morrison's American Ranch. 

Junction House, 15 miles west of Beaver Creek, 5 miles east of Bijou Creek. At 
tliis place the Denver "cut-off" road leaves the overland stage road and strikes 
southwest toward Denver. 

Jimction House to Denver, 90 miles. 

Beaver Creek Station, 77 miles west of Julesburg. 

Bijou Creek Station, 97 miles west of Julesburg. 

Fremont Orchard Station, 113 miles. 

Camp Sanborn, abandoned before January, 1865. 

Eagle's Nest Station, 125 miles west of Julesburg. 

Latham Station, 135 miles from Julesburg, 61 miles from Denver. Here the coaches 
crossed the Platte and ran west to Salt Lake. 

Big Bend Station, 15 miles .south of Latham, 46 miles from Denver. 

Camp Living Springs, where there were troops in January, 1865, 29 miles from 
Denver. 

Fort Lupton Station, 29 miles from Denver. 

Pierson Station, 14 miles from Denver. 

Denver, 197 miles from Julesburg, 400 miles from Fort Kearny, 653 miles from 
Atchison, according to official stage company statistics. 

Pole Creek and North Platte road. This is the old Overland Stage Road abandoned 
in 1862. In 1864-5 the stages ran up the South Platte to Latham, crossed the 
river there, and ran due west to Salt Lake. The Pole Creek and North Platte 
road was used by emigrants and the miUtary only; the Overland Telegraph Lme 
ran along this road, with a branch Une up the South Platte to Denver. 

From Julesburg. Cross the river at Mormon Ford and go up the south bank of 
Pole Creek. Pole Creek Crossing, 35 miles from Julesburg. Cross Pole Creek 
here and go across the dry divide called the Thirty-Mile Ridge or Jule's Stretch 
to Mud Springs, 32 miles (about) from Pole Creek Crossing. From Mud Springs 
the road strikes northwest, fords Pumpkinseed Creek below the forks, and, enter- 
ing the North Platte vaUey, passes between Court House Rock and the river. 
Here the old Oregon Trail, coming up the Platte from Ash Hollow, joins the road. 
Pass an old stage station near Chimney Rock, cross Scott's Bluffs through Mitch- 
ell's Pass, and reach Camp Mitchell, estabUshed in 1864. Camp Mitchell was 
55 miles west of Mud Springs and 3 miles west of Mitchell Gap in Scott's Bluffs. 
Horse Creek, 37 miles east of Fort Laramie. Reynal's Ranch (trading-house and 
old stage station), on west bank of Horse Creek. Upper Platte Agency or 
Owakipamni (jilace of distribution), 9 milas west of Horse Creek and 28 miles 
east of Fort Laramie. Bordeaux's trading-house, site of the G rattan flght, 9 
or 10 miles east of Fort Laramie (was still in existence in 1864). Beauvais's 
Ranch and trading-house, 5 miles east of Laramie. Fort Laramie, about 184 
miles, by this road, from Julesburg. 



192 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

small to mount his horse in a hurry, and while he was still trying 
to get on the horse a soldier rode up and shot him in the breast. 
At that moment Yellow Nose succeeded in mounting, and followed 
the rest of his party, who were in full flight for a nearby sand hill. 
The cavalry were close after them, seemingly about to overtake 
them, when suddenly a large party of Indians rode out from behind 
the sand hill and charged the troops, who turned and galloped 
back toward the corral. The Indians rode into their rear ranks 
and killed about half of them before they reached the wagons. 
A soldier mounted on a very fast horse dashed right through the 
charging Indians and got away along the Laramie road toward the 
west. A few Indians on fleet ponies followed him, and after a 
long chase overtook and killed him. In his saddle-bags they 
found a paper which they brought to George Bent after the fight. 
It was a message from Colonel Collins to the officer commanding 
at Fort Laramie, stating that he had been attacked by three 
thousand warriors and forced to corral his wagons, and requesting 
that aid be sent to him at once. Many years later George Bent 
met Sergeant MacDonald, who died at Teluga, Oklahoma, about 
1900. He told Bent that he was an enlisted man with this train 
when it was attacked and that Colonel Collins had given copies 
of this message to two men, with orders to ride through the In- 
dian lines and take it to the fort. Colonel Collins, however, 
says nothing in his report about this, but states that the charge 
was made to drive some Indians from a knoll about four hundred 
yards from the corral. 

The fighting continued until nearly evening; but it was not 
very interesting. Both sides stuck close to their cover, exposing 
themselves as little as possible. Toward dark most of the Indians 
withdrew in little parties and recrossed the river to their camp. 
In the morning some of them returned and fired a few shots at 
the soldiers, then returned to camp again. Colonel Collins de- 
clares that at noon the last stragglers were seen crossing the bluffs 

Cheyennes, who died about 1896. Spotted Wolf married Wind Woman, a 
sister of Gentle Horse and Black Kettle. Yellow Nose became a great war- 
rior and took a prominent part in many of the old battles with the whites, 
such as Crook's fight on the Rosebud and Custer's fight on the Little Big 
Horn a few days later. He still (1909) is living not far from Geary, Oklahoma. 
He captured a flag — guidon — in the Custer battle. He was in Dull Knife's 
village when it was captured in 1876. 



RAIDING ALONG THE PLATTE 193 

and hurrying in among the sand hills, a few scouts remaining be- 
hind to watch the troops. 

Early that morning (February 9), according to Indian accounts, 
the women took down the lodges and the village started north into 
the rough sand-hills country, where there was no wood and water 
was very scarce. After having travelled about forty miles they 
camped that night on a small stream called by the Indians Snake 
Creek.^ There was no wood here, but fires were made of buffalo- 
chips. The next day another long march was made and the In- 
dians encamped on Niobrara River, called by them Sudden or 
Unexpected River, sometimes Surprise River.^ The next camp 
was on a small sand creek, evidently near White River, where 
there was plenty of wood, and here the village rested four days, 
killing antelope and elk. 

At this camp on the sand creek, runners came in with news 
that the Northern Cheyennes and the Ogallala Sioux were en- 
camped on Powder River ,^ west of the Black Hills, and the North- 
ern Arapahoes near Tongue River,"* farther west. These runners 
were Cheyenne men who had been sent north from the camp on 
White Butte Creek, the day that Black Kettle's band moved south 
and the rest of the village north, to raid the South Platte road. 
With them came a number of Northern Cheyennes. From this 
camp the Indians moved up to Bear Lodge River, a fine stream 
flowing through the northeastern part of the Black Hills, on whose 
forks the Indians loved to make their winter camps. The Sioux 
who were in the village, Brule or Burnt Thigh Sioux, of Spotted 
Tail's and Pawnee Killer's bands, now left the camp and moved 
off to the east, and about the same time the Northern Arapahoes 
left and moved west toward Tongue River to join their people. 
This left only the Southern Cheyennes in the camp on Bear Lodge 

1 Snake Creek— Shi shi'nl f yo he. 

2 His se'yovi'yoe. It is said that the Cheyennes crossing a wide flat on 
which no timber nor wiUows grew were astonished when they came on the 
Btream flowing through this flat. This is said to be the character of the Nio- 
brara River between the headwaters of Snake Creek and White River to the 
north. This was called by the early trappers "Running Water." 

3 Paiyo'he, from Pai, gunpowder, coal or any black dust -\- ohe, so named 
from the seams of lignite found along its banks. The word is said to have 
been used for lignite or black powder of any sort long before gunpowder was 
known. 

* Tongue River, Wlt'ino i'yohe', river of tongues. 



194 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

River, and they also soon broke camp and moved around the 
northern side of the Black Hills, camping on Red Paint River,i 
at the northwest side of the hills; thence they moved west, camp- 
ing on Antelope Pit River,"^ where in early days the Indians had 
caught antelope in pits. Their next move brought them to Powder 
River, and there they found the Northern Cheyennes and a big 
camp of Ogallalas camped near each other in a good place, with 
plenty of wood and grass and with buffalo abundant. 

^ Red Paint River, Ma'J tiim 5 ni'yohe, a stream from whose banks in 
ancient days the Indians used to dig the red clay used in painting. 

2 Antelope Pit River, Wo kai he'yunio i'ohe. It was on this stream espe- 
cially that the Cheyennes captured antelope in pitfalls. 



XVI 

THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 

1865 

The raids during the winter of 1864-5 led General Grenville M. 
Dodge, who commanded the department of the Missouri, to be- 
lieve that one sure way to protect the frontier from Indian 
depredations was to strike some hard blows in the enemy's coun- 
try. He planned to send into the Powder River country, where 
the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes were thought to be in camp, 
four columns of troops — one under General Sully and three under 
command of General P. E. Connor — and to attack the Indians 
there. 

General Connor took command of the District of the Plains, 
which had been created for him, March 30, 1865. Returning 
from the East, where he had gone to consult General Dodge, 
he reached Julesburg May 15, and at once began to prepare for 
the expedition to the Powder River and Yellowstone country. 
Sully failed to get his men ready and Connor acted alone. 

It was determined that the right column of the command, 
under Colonel N. Cole,^ should march from Columbus, Nebraska, 
northwesterly, passing north of the Black Hills. From Fort 
Laramie Colonel Walker, of the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, with 
about six hundred men and a pack-train was to march north, 
through the Black Hills. He did this, joining Cole north of the 
Black Hills and east of the Little Missouri River. Connor com- 
manded the other column. He had a detachment of the Seventh 
Iowa Cavalry, the Second California Cavalry, a signal corps, a 
company of ninety-five Pawnee scouts, under IMajor Frank North, 
and about the same number of Omaha and Winnebago scouts. 

When Connor reached Fort Laramie and established tempo- 
rary headquarters there he found great dissatisfaction prevailing 
among the volunteer troops. Most of these men had enlisted 

1 Connor's orders to Cole and Walker are in Official Records, vol. 102, pp. 
1045-9. Connor orders Cole to kill all males over twelve years. 

195 



196 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

for three years, or during the War of the RebelHon. Many were 
veterans who had re-enUsted. At the close of the Civil War, 
instead of being discharged and sent home, as they felt they should 
have been, they were ordered out on this Indian campaign. De- 
sertions were constantly taking place, and when Colonel Walker's 
order was read to the troops, the volunteers mutinied and declared 
they would not go on the expedition. Connor at once formed 
the remainder of his troops in line of battle, brought his artillery 
to bear on the mutineers, and just as he was about to order an 
attack the men consented to go. They left Fort Laramie on the 
appointed day, July 5, under command of Colonel Walker. The 
regiment that mutinied was Colonel Walker's own, the Sixteenth 
Kansas Cavalry. 

On August 2, with a force of about six hundred and seventy-five 
men, Connor crossed the Platte near the La Bonte crossing and 
marched up the north bank of the river to a point not far from 
where Fort Fetterman afterward stood. Here he turned north 
and marched across the dry country between the Platte and the 
headwaters of Powder River, and then on down Powder River. 
Long before they reached Powder River the Big Horn INIountains 
began to be visible. "The sun so shone as to fall with full blaze 
upon the southern and southwestern sides of Cloud Peak . . . 
and the whole snow-covered range so clearly blended with the 
sky as to leave it in doubt whether all was not a mass of bright 
cloud. ... In front and a little to the northeast could be seen 
the four columns of Pumpkin Buttes, and fifty miles further 
east Bear Butte, and beyond, a faint outline of the Black Hills. 
The atmosphere was so wonderfully clear and bright that one 
could imagine that he could see the eagles on the crags of Pumpkin 
Buttes full forty miles away." ^ 

The command reached Powder River August 11, and began the 
construction of a post called Camp Connor, which later became 
Fort Reno, twenty-three and one-half miles above the mouth of 
Crazy Woman's Fork. Scouting and picket duty was done 
chiefly by the Pawnee scouts. From the official record and 
Palmer's account, the expedition seems to have been more or 
less a picnic or pleasure excursion. The troops ran their horses 

^Transactions and Reports, Nebraska Historical Society, vol. II, p. 206. 
(Lincoln, 1887.) 



THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 197 

almost to death chasing buffalo and jack rabbits, although Gen- 
eral Curtis while commanding this department had issued orders 
forbidding this practise. Connor had better control over his 
men, but his officers seem to have done about as they pleased. 
Even on the very day that the Pawnees had a fight with the 
Cheyennes a few officers rode after game far from the column and 
came near being attacked by Indians. 

A few days after the command reached Powder River scouts 
reported an Indian trail, and the whole company of Pawnees was 
ordered to follow it. According to their practise when expecting 
a fight they stripped themselves and their horses, and started out. 
The trail seemed to have been made by thirty-five or forty animals, 
one of which was dragging a travois. The Indians travelled fast, 
but the Pawnees followed at a gallop. At night about half the 
men, whose horses had become exhausted, were sent back to 
camp, but the remainder followed the trail until it became too 
dark to see it, when two Pawnees dismounted and followed on 
foot. At daylight a smoke was seen — at the camp of the Chey- 
ennes, who were then just moving out. 

These, because the Pawnees were riding in column, at first 
took them for white troops and prepared to fight, but when they 
heard the war cry of the Pawnees they sprang on their horses 
again and took to flight. A running fight took place, in which, 
according to Major North's statements and the official report, 
the whole party of Cheyennes, twenty-four or twenty-seven, was 
killed. Connor's report is as follows: 

Headquarters, 

Powder River, August 19th, 1865. 
Major-General G. M. Dodge: 

A detachment of my Pawnee scouts on the 16th inst. discovered and 
pursued a party of 24 Cheyennes returning from the mail road with scalps 
and plunder. They overtook them about sixty miles northeast of here on 
Powder River, and after a short engagement killed the whole party. Loss on 
our side, 4 horses killed. We captured 29 animals, among which were 4 Gov- 
ernment and one overland stage line horse, besides two Government saddles 
and a quantity of women's and children's clothing, and two of the infantry 
coats issued by Col. Moonlight last spring to the Indians, who subsequently 
killed Capt. Fouts and four soldiers of the Seventh Iowa. 

P. Edw. Connor, 
Brigadier-General. 



198 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

These Cheyennes are believed to have been a part of those 
engaged in the attack on the Platte Bridge when Lieutenant 
Collins and Sergeant Custard with their men were killed. There 
were said to have been scalps of white soldiers found in the packs 
of the Indians.^ 

The Southern Cheyennes do not appear to know of any fight 
in which twenty-four or twenty-seven Cheyennes were killed. 
It seems probable therefore that this whole Cheyenne party of 
twenty-four was killed and that the Southern Cheyennes know 
nothing of it. Palmer's detailed account of the fight agrees with 
all the others that are given. 

Only a few days later Major North came near being killed by 
the Cheyennes. He had ridden ahead of his Pawnees, whose 
horses were giving out, and was charged by a dozen Cheyennes. 
His horse was shot in the first encounter, and so badly wounded 
that it could not be ridden. He started to retreat, leading his 
horse, and then found that he was almost out of ammunition. 
By judicious use of his gun — by always threatening to fire at the 
approaching Indians and never firing — he kept the Indians from 
coming close to him, and at length met some of the Pawnees, 
when the Cheyennes left him. 

Just west of Powder River there was a beaten trail along which 
passed many of the war parties returning from the mail road. 
Here little fights frequently took place, and every day or two the 
troops and the Pawnees killed one or more Cheyennes. Bent 
says that the Pawnees often showed themselves and acted like 
hostile Indians, thus getting close to the Cheyennes and Sioux 
before their identity was discovered. 

That summer a party of engineers with a large wagon-train 
had started from the IMissouri River up the Niobrara to open a 
wagon-road to the Montana mines. Colonel Sawyer, the leader 
of the expedition, had been given a military escort — Companies 
C and D, Fifth U. S. Volunteers. The soldiers of these companies 
were ex-Confederates released from military prisons on consent- 
ing to enlist to fight the Indians. The escort was commanded 
by Captain Williford, who, besides the infantry, had twenty-four 
men of the First Dakota Cavalry. At the head of the Niobrara 
the party struck across for Powder River, but on account of the 

1 Pawnee Hero Stones and Folk Tales, p. 326. (New York, 1889.) 



THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 199 

rough country had great difficulty in reaching it. About twenty 
miles before they came to the stream they turned aside to avoid 
the broken country, and two days later were attacked by " several 
thousand" Indians, who kept them corralled for nearly four days 
and nights, fighting through the day and withdrawing at night, to 
renew hostilities in the morning. At last the Indians withdrew 
and the train moved sixty miles further south. South of Pump- 
kin Buttes the company struck Connor's trail and followed it to 
the new fort. Of this attack General Dodge said that "the In- 
dians attacked Colonel Sawyer's wagon-road party, and failing in 
their attempt, they held a parley. Colonel Bent's sons, George 
and Joe Bent, appeared on the part of the Indians, and Colonel 
Sawyer gave them a wagon-load of goods to let him go undis- 
turbed. Captain Williford, commanding escort, not agreeing to it. 
The Indians accepted the proposal and agreed to it, but after re- 
ceiving the goods they attacked the party, killing three men. . . . 
He (George Bent) was dressed in one of our staff-officers' uniforms." 

The Indian account of this affair is substantially the same. 
One day hunters rode into the village and notified them that sol- 
diers were coming. Bull Bear, the camp crier, rode about calling 
out the news to the Cheyennes, while Red Cloud made the same 
announcement to the Sioux, and all the Indians drove in their 
horses. The men mounted their war ponies and went about 
twenty miles up Powder River, where they met troops, and a big 
wagon-train near the Gourd (Pumpkin) Butte. The soldiers 
were marching on each side of the wagons, and an officer with 
several soldiers and a Mexican interpreter rode out to meet the 
Indians, and made signs that four or five chiefs should come for- 
ward to meet them. Bull Bear and Dull Knife, George Bent and 
Red Cloud went to meet them. 

The officer, evidently Colonel Sawyer, said that he was going 
to the Big Horn River to build a post, and had not come here to 
fight. Red Cloud said that if he would keep out of his country 
and would make no roads all would be well. Dull Knife said the 
same thing, and Red Cloud advised the officer to go due west, 
and then north on the Big Horn River and he would be out of 
the Indian country. The officer said, however, that that road 
was too long, and offered a wagon-load of sugar, coffee, rice, and 
other provisions if they would allow him to strike straight across 



200 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the country. The chiefs agreed to this, and the officer told 
Bent to keep the Indians away while he had the wagon unloaded. 
This was about the middle of the day. The officer wished to get 
nearer the river and to go into camp. After he had moved down 
to the river and corralled his wagons, more Sioux came from the 
camp, and because they had received no share of the goods 
handed over they began to circle round the wagons and to fire on 
them. The soldiers had chosen a good place in which to fight — 
near to the water and with bare, level ground all about them — 
so that the Indians could not get near them. In this fight some 
horses were killed and five Sioux wounded, of whom two died 
later. Two soldiers and one Mexican were killed. 

As General Connor's command moved down Tongue River the 
Pawnees came upon a heavy Indian trail over which a large camp 
had passed. When Captain North reported this to General 
Connor, he was ordered to take ten of his Pawnees and follow the 
trail. Only twenty-five or thirty miles from where he had left 
the command he found a large village of Indians, consisting of 
two or three hundred lodges. Messengers were sent back to 
General Connor, and the next day he came up with four hundred 
men and two pieces of artillery. The command was brought to 
within three-quarters of a mile of the Indian village before it was 
discovered. The troops charged on the camp, and dispersed its 
inhabitants, who were chiefly Arapahoes, under Black Bear, with 
some Cheyennes. The village, a large number of horses, and 
some women and children were captured, while a number of the 
Indians were killed. General Dodge says that six hundred horses 
were captured ; Palmer says one thousand one hundred, and Major 
North says seven hundred and fifty horses and mules. The women 
and children captured were afterward set free. It was said that 
General Connor was inclined to give their horses back to the 
Arapahoes, but the Pawnees grumbled so about it that the idea 
was given up. 

The utter heedlessness of Indians, even in time of war, could 
hardly be better shown than by something that happened just 
before Connor's attack on this village. 

Ignorant of the fact that troops were near, a Cheyenne named 
Little Horse^ with his wife and boy started from the Cheyenne 

1 Mo in'a hka' kit. Very likely the same Little Horse who was a leader 
of the Northern Cheyennes at the Fort Phil Kearny fight. 



THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 201 

camp to go to the Arapaho village. They were following the 
Arapaho trail. One of the packs got loose, and the wife dis- 
mounted to tighten it. She happened to turn her head and look 
back, and far behind saw people following the trail. She said to 
her husband, "Look over there," and Little Horse looked back 
and said: "Why, they are soldiers; hurry." 

They went on, and when they had passed over the next hill 
and out of sight turned off the trail. Little Horse cut loose the 
travois on which the boy was riding, took the boy on behind him, 
and they cut across the country for the Arapaho camp, riding 
fast. When they reached the camp the wife of Little Horse told 
the crier to go through the camp and call out that soldiers were 
following. An Indian who heard this said: "Little Horse has 
made a mistake; he just saw some Indians coming over the trail, 
and nothing more." 

Little Horse, however, went to his relations and said : " Now, 
you people would better get away from here; pack up whatever 
you wish to take along. We must go to-night." His brother-in- 
law, the Panther, said: "Oh, you are always getting frightened 
and making mistakes about things. You saw nothing but some 
buffalo." 

"Very well," said Little Horse, "you need not go unless you 
want to, but we shall go to-night," and he and his relatives went 
on up the stream. 

The Arapahoes had no belief that the troops were coming. On 
the morning of the attack they were about to move camp, and the 
women were pulling down the lodges. A man who had a fast 
horse and who was going to run a race with some one while the 
camp was travelling had gone up on the hill to give his horse a 
run, and as he passed over a ridge he saw before him the troops 
all ready to make a charge. He rode back as hard as he could 
and notified the camp. Many of the i\rapaho men, women, and 
children ran out of the camp and down into the timber and brush 
on Tongue River and hid there. When the troops charged the 
village they followed only the people who were on horseback 
and running away, and did not think of those who had hidden in 
the brush. The Pawnees used to say that they did not care much 
about killing the people. They were after the horse herd of the 
camp, for General Connor had promised them that they could 
keep the horses they captured. Therefore they devoted them- 



202 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

selves to catching the horses, and did not especially try to kill 
people. 

Panther, Little Horse's brother-in-law, who had refused to 
heed his warning was killed in the village, and when Little Horse 
returned the day after the troops had gone away he found his 
body lying just in front of where the lodge had been. 

Palmer's account of this affair is quite graphic, though written 
from the point of view of a man who knew nothing of Indians or 
Indian fighting, but wished to impress an audience. It is evident 
from the published accounts that after the Indians got over their 
first fright they made a good fight, and that, although the village 
had been captured and they had lost their horses and many of 
their people, nevertheless the troops could not get at them, and 
the Indians did not run far. In fact, after Connor and his com- 
mand had turned about and were going back to their camp the 
Indians followed them and kept quite close to them, and, in bra- 
vado, gave some very extraordinary exhibitions of riding. General 
Connor burned the village and punished his own troops for stopping 
to plunder when they should have been fighting by destroying 
all the articles they had taken. The captives, eight women and 
thirteen children, were set free a few days later. 

The command now moved down Tongue River, reaching the 
point where Cole should have been about the 1st of September, 
but no signs were found there of Cole or Walker. 

On September 4 messengers from Sawyer's train came to the 
camp and reported the train corralled and surrounded on the 
Bozeman trail, west of Tongue River, and Connor sent troops to 
relieve Sawyer. It is supposed that Sawyer was attacked by 
the Arapahoes whom Connor had lately driven out of their 
camp. 

The failure to hear anything of the columns under Cole and 
Walker made General Connor uneasy, and on the 8th of Sep- 
tember Major North, with twenty Pawnees, was sent out toward 
Powder River to look for trails, while Connor turned about and 
proceeded up Tongue River. The Pawnees started out in a 
violent rain-storm, carrying only such provisions as they could 
tie on their saddles, and expecting to live chiefly on game. On 
the 11th of September North returned and reported that on 
Powder River they had found between five and six hundred 



THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 203 

dead cavalry horses, undoubtedly belonging to Cole's command. 
Most of them were dead on the picket line, and many fires were 
found in the camp, in the ashes of which were remains of saddles, 
bridles, and other equipment intentionally destroyed. This news 
troubled Connor greatly, and he again sent out scouts to try to 
locate Cole and order him to proceed up Powder River to Fort 
Connor. 

Major North and his Pawnees finally found Cole and Walker 
on September 19. The men were starving and flocked about 
North and his Pawnees begging for food. The Pawnees gave 
them all they had, and refused to accept money for it, though 
some of the men offered five dollars for a single hardtack. 

In passing through the rough bad-land country Cole was 
continually delayed by his inability to get his wagons along. 
Neither he nor Walker had had any experience on the plains, 
and they were without guides or any one familiar with the coun- 
try or with Indian campaigning. After their meeting they had 
a very hard time because of the novel difficulties of prairie travel 
and of Indian fighting. Walker appears to have wandered about 
in the hope that he might meet Connor, and Cole followed after 
him. The command was several times attacked by the Indians, 
Sioux and Cheyenne, and Cole reported that his men had killed 
a large number. They were in constant fear that they would 
lose their horses, and so did not let them graze. The animals 
grew thin and weak, became unserviceable, and finally died in 
large numbers. Some horses were captured by Indians, and 
during one or two cold storms five hundred or six hundred died 
at the picket line. Cole was thus obliged to burn his saddles 
and wagons, and finally lost most of his live stock. It is alto- 
gether possible that if it had not been for his artillery the Indians 
might have killed his whole command. The big guns with the 
shells frightened the Indians, and it was usually practicable to 
disperse any gathering by firing the cannon at them. 

When Major North and the Pawnees found the command of 
about one thousand eight hundred men all the cavalrymen were 
on foot. They had still about 600 horses, but none fit for service. 
The men were wholly without provisions, and if they had not 
been found must before long have died of starvation. Cole's 
loss was twelve men killed and two missing, besides several 



204 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

wounded. He estimated the loss of the Indians in the fights 
had with them as "from 200 to 500 killed" and a great many 
wounded. Major North took this command to Fort Connor, 
which Connor himself reached September 24. Connor reported 
Cole's command "as completely disgusted and discouraged an 
outfit of men as I ever saw." 

At Camp Connor General Connor found orders from the 
Department Commander calling him in to Fort Laramie and 
relieving him of his command. He was greatly angered at this 
treatment, and felt that he had been grievously injured — as in- 
deed he had. After he was mustered out he went to Salt Lake 
City, and never made any report on his expedition; the good 
work that he had done in the Powder River country came to noth- 
ing, and he was never given any credit for it. 

Just as Connor failed to make a report, so neither Cole nor 
Walker made a written report at the time, but a year later Cole, 
exasperated by the charges made against him by General Connor 
and his oSicers, sent a long report to General Grant. From thaf^ 
and from the stories told by the Cheyennes a clear idea may be 
had of the situation. It seems evident that, while Cole and 
Walker both showed themselves incompetent, General Connor, 
after all, was largely responsible for their troubles. He sent out 
two columns under two colonels, but did not put Walker under 
Cole's command. When the two men met they at once began to 
quarrel, and seem to have disagreed about everything and to 
have acted together only when attacked by Indians in force. 
Besides that, Connor had promised to be at a certain point on 
or near September 1, but appears to have felt little responsibility 
about this, and spent nearly two weeks building a fort and a week 
more fighting Arapahoes. Meantime Cole and W^alker, abso- 
lutely unacquainted with the plains or with Indians, were at a 
loss what to do or where to go. 

During the first days of September Cole and Walker, having 
already lost hundreds of animals through starvation, were attacked 
by a large body of Cheyennes and Sioux, and what the Chey- 
ennes called Roman Nose's fight took place. Cole and Walker, 
who were marching up the valley of Powder River, were discov- 
ered by a small Cheyenne war party who sent back word to the 

^ Official Records, vol. 102. 



THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 205 

camp and all the men came out to the fight. Roman Nose had 
requested the leaders not to make the charge until he came up, for 
usually it took him some time to perform the ceremonies required 
by the protective war bonnet which he wore — the one made for 
him by Ice, of the Northern Cheyennes, and the one he wore when 
he was killed in 1868. When Roman Nose came to the fight he 
put himself at the head of the Indians, who formed a line facing 
the troops, while Roman Nose, mounted on a fine war horse, rode 
the whole length of the line at a run within easy carbine shot of 
the soldiers. His war bonnet protected him, and he was not hit. 
He repeated this manoeuvre several times, and then at a signal 
all the Indians charged. If the Indians had had a few guns they 
might have broken the line and killed many of the soldiers, but 
they had less than half a dozen guns among them and could not 
long face the heavy volleys from the Spencer carbines with which 
most of the troops were armed. The Indians soon withdrew to 
the hills, where they were shelled, but without injury. The only 
man hit was a very old Sioux, Black Whetstone, who was sitting 
behind a hill half a mile away when a shell came over the hill 
and dropped on him. 

The Cheyennes now left the troops and went away toward the 
Black Hills to hunt buffalo. The command continued its slow 
progress up the river, and on September 8 reached the mouth of 
Little Powder River where they were attacked by " 3,000 Sioux." 
This attack is said by the Indians to have been made to stop the 
troops, in order that the women of the Sioux camp might pack 
their lodges and move away. That night a cold storm came on, 
and many of the horses and mules that the troops still had died 
on the picket line. Wagons, saddles, supplies of all kinds, and 
even ammunition were now destroyed. 

Finally, as stated, the command was found by Major North 
and his Pawnees, who led them, barefooted and in rags, into Fort 
Connor, which they reached September 20. 

General Dodge had been receiving news from Fort Connor 
which had misled him into believing that Cole and Walker's re- 
treat up Powder River had been a victorious advance. He speaks 
of battles in which the Sioux were driven, defeated, and pursued. 
On the 4th he says that they defeated the Sioux, killing two 
hundred. But this was the day the troops moved about a mile 



206 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

up the valley to get better grass for the starving animals and 
saw no Indians. 

According to Cheyenne accounts the troops never took the 
offensive against the Indians. Their horses were in such condition 
that the troops could not make a mounted charge and were satis- 
fied to fight off the Indians. Cole himself says that his men never 
fought except when forced to do so. 

After the withdrawal of these troops there were no soldiers 
in the country until the following year, when General Carrington 
was sent up there to establish Fort Phil Kearny. 



XVII 

PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 

1865 

In March, 1865, the Southern Cheyennes who had gone north 
to raid the overland stage road joined the Northern Cheyennes, 
and the Ogallala Sioux under Old Man Afraid of His Horses, who 
were encamped on Powder River. The two tribes were in sepa- 
rate camps a short distance apart, and the Southern Cheyennes 
put up their lodges with their kinsmen, the Northern Cheyennes. 
Many of the younger people of the Southern Cheyennes had 
never before been in the northern country nor seen a great camp 
of the northern tribe. Now that they met the Northern Chey- 
ennes with the Sioux they found that the northern division had 
some customs unlike those of the southerners and resembling those 
of the Sioux. 

The Northern Cheyennes and the Sioux gladly welcomed the 
people from the south and feasted them daily. They had heard 
something about the slaughter at Sand Creek and questioned the 
southern people about that, as well as about their fights with the 
troops on their way north. Not long after they reached Powder 
River all the lodges were taken down and the villages moved a 
short distance down the stream to camp again in a fresh place. 
Here the lodges, instead of being arranged in a great circle, were 
pitched in little clusters up and down the river, making a camp 
that extended along the stream for about two miles. Indians who 
were in the camp on the Little Big Horn River when it was at- 
tacked by Custer in 1876 say that it was much like this one on 
Powder River, though the one on the Little Big Horn was far the 
larger of the two. 

It was thought that the camp would remain here for some time 
and for this reason small groups, five or six families, joined in 
building log corrals or pens in which to keep their best horses 
at night. Each evening the more valuable animals were driven 

207 



208 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

into these corrals, while the wild ponies and old pack-horses were 
left to run loose on the prairie. 

One morning a herder going out on the prairie to look at the 
horses found there a bow and quiver. He brought them into the 
camp and they were recognized as being made by the Crows. 
During the night a party of young Crows had come to the camp 
to capture horses. They had found the wild horses on the prairie, 
and in trying to ride one a Crow had been thrown and in the dark- 
ness had lost his bow and quiver. 

The story told by the weapons was at once understood and 
young men mounted their horses and in small parties set out to 
look for the trail left by the Crows. It was soon found and the 
Cheyennes followed it rapidly, for it was easily read in the snow. 
Before long a party overtook four of the Crows and killed them. 
They had been unable to find any horses they could ride, and on 
foot they could not drive the wild animals swiftly enough to es- 
cape pursuit. They had therefore abandoned the horses and 
tried to get away on foot. The young man who had been thrown 
and had lost his bow and arrows had mounted a wild horse that 
belonged to Old Bull Bear. He must have been badly hurt by 
the fall, for while following his tracks they saw a number of places 
where he had sat down to rest. He was killed only a couple of 
miles from the village. The young Cheyennes who were follow- 
ing the horses' tracks at length came to the place where three of 
the Crows had ceased to try to drive the horses and had run off 
together through the snow, turning into the mountains and fol- 
lowing up a canyon until they came to a hole in the rocks, into 
which they had gone. The Cheyennes could see the barrels of 
guns thrust out of this hole, and did not go very near to it. 

As they were standing about Gentle Horse rode up and said: 
"Wait, be careful; get away from near the mouth of that hole. 
Do not take any risks." After he had spoken he looked about a 
little and saw, not far from the first hole, another one in the rocks 
higher up on the face of the canyon. He directed the young men 
to gather cedar and pine boughs, and said to them: "We will get 
those enemies out of that place, for we will smoke them out." 
They went around, and, getting to the upper hole, they stuffed 
into it cedar and pine and some sage-brush and set it on fire. 
The young men brought branches and threw them into the hole. 



PLATrE BRIDGE FIGHT 209 

and with their lances shoved the burning branches down to the 
bottom, which they now saw was connected with the cave in 
which the Crows were. When they were thrusting down the 
lances the Crows came up to the crevice below and struck the 
lances with their ramrods, thus counting a coup on the Chey- 
ennes. Presently from the top of the canyon Gentle Horse and 
the others began to drop burning branches down in front of the 
cave so that there might be smoke on both sides of the Crows. 
Those who could see the mouth of the cave saw the Crows within 
hard at work tlirowing out earth to try to put out the fire. 

A little later one of the Crows, holding his butcher-knife in 
his hand, ran out of the cave and up to Big Horse' and struck 
him on the breast with his knife, breaking the knife blade on the 
German silver breastplate which he wore. The Cheyennes who 
were watching shot down this Crow, and then the other two Crows 
jumped out and were killed; their hands were scorched and the 
strings of their bows were burned in two. 

The Cheyennes returned to camp with the scalps of the four 
Crows and for a number of nights scalp dances were held by the 
Sioux and Northern Cheyennes. So great a drumming and sing- 
ing went on that the buffalo were frightened away from the 
neighborhood of the camp. The Cheyennes believe that buffalo 
are afraid of a drum, but say that they do not mind singing. 

It now became necessary to send out men to find the buffalo, 
and at length the scouts came in with news that the herds were on 
Little Powder River.^ Camp was broken and two moves were 
made to that stream. In this new camp the Crazy Dogs, then 
acting as police, gave orders that no drumming should be done. 
From this time on the drums were silent, but the dancing and 
singing over the Crow scalps continued. 

The Crazy Dogs^ were one of several soldier societies, of 
which the others were Red Shields,^ Dog Soldiers,^ Crooked Lance 
Soldiers,^ Kit-Fox Soldiers,^ Bow String,^ and Chief Soldiers.' 

In a large camp one of these societies was always on duty to 

^ Still alive at Cantonment, Oklahoma, in 1908, about eighty years old. 

^ Pai'yo he kis derivation is Powder River; + the diminutive suffix "kis." 

' Ho ta,m'i mS-s sau', Dogs Crazy. 

♦ Ma ho he'vas. ^ Ho tami'tan'iu. 

« HIm'o we ytihTc Is. ' Wohk seh'he tin'iu. 

8 HIm'o tan o'his. » Wi'hiu tin'iu. 



210 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

enforce the orders of the chiefs and generally to keep order in the 
camp. Neither the Chief Soldiers nor the Red Shields took part 
in this police work, for these two societies were composed of 
older men, but the principal duty of the other societies was the 
enforcing of order. It sometimes happened that the young men 
of these societies became arrogant and endeavored to exert undue 
influence on the camp, to carry out certain plans that their soldier 
band had determined on. Under ordinary conditions when one 
society had policed the camp for a certain length of time it went 
off duty, being relieved by soldiers of another band selected by 
the chiefs. 

The powers of the soldiers were great and often they severely 
punished men who violated customs or camp rules. Sometimes 
they whipped men, beat them with their war clubs, or even killed 
their ponies. Under less provocation they might cut up robes, 
break lodge-poles or even cut up lodges. The soldiers took charge 
of the general hunts and directed the hunters, seeing to it that the 
rules governing the hunt were observed and that all men had an 
equal chance to kill food. 

For some time the camp remained on Little Powder River, 
killing buffalo and frequently moving camp in order to find fresh 
grass for the horses, which must be put in good condition after the 
long, cold winter. In May the camp moved over to Tongue 
River and travelled up that stream by short marches until near 
its head at the base of the Big Horn Mountains. Here the chiefs 
of the tribes held a war council and it was decided that as soon 
as the horses were strong enough war parties should set out and 
raid the emigrant roads on the North Platte and the South Platte. 
It was determined also to make a general attack at some point 
on the road in midsummer. Now the camp moved back to 
Powder River, and from there parties began to set out southward 
to raid the white men's roads. The objective point of one large 
party was the emigrant road near the Platte Bridge. In this 
large force there were Northern and Southern Cheyennes and a 
body of Sioux warriors, led by Young Man Afraid of His Horses.^ 

* This famous Sioux warrior's name, like that of his father, has been mis- 
interpreted. It really means, "They fear even his horses," or "Even his 
horses are feared." The significance is that the man is so brave that his 
enemies are afraid even of his horses. 



PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 211 

The Northern Cheyennes, who had always lived up in this 
country, led their southern kinsfolk directly to the North Platte 
River, striking it at a point about thirty miles below the Platte 
Bridge, where the town of Casper, Natrona County, now is.^ 
To the Southern Cheyennes this whole country was strange, al- 
though their forefathers had lived here up until the separation of 
the two sections of the tribe, about a generation before. The 
Cheyennes reached the river after three nights, forded it, and 
went west along the stage road until they came to a stockade. 
Here they fought the soldiers all day, running off a herd of mules, 
and toward evening retreating across the Platte River. 

After some raiding along the stage road the Indians all gathered 
in the hills on the north side of the Platte River and in the neigh- 
borhood of the bridge which stood close to the fort there — some- 
times called Camp Dodge. They went into camp on a little 
stream that flows into the Platte some distance east of the bridge, 
but the camp was far up the creek so that the high bluffs along the 
northern border of the river valley hid them from view. Here 
were gathered a great party of fighting Indians, estimated by peo- 
ple who were present at three thousand men. At all events, 
three tribes were represented, Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes, 
and there were present a large proportion of the fighting men of 
these tribes. Besides the men there were about two hundred 
women, cliiefly Cheyennes. 

It was now the middle of the summer, and they decided to 
attack the stockade at the Platte Bridge. A small force of In- 
dians was to be sent down close to the fort to induce the soldiers 
to come out and pursue them, when the Indians would lead 
the troops to a place where a large force of Indians was hidden. 
After these decoys had been sent out the main body went to the 
bluffs overlooking the river bottom and the fort. During the 
march to this point the rear and both flanks were guarded by 
bands of the soldiers, the Crazy Dogs marching on the flanks, 
while the Dog Soldiers brought up the rear. These soldiers kept 
the warriors in compact formation, and the warriors followed 

1 This party attacked Deer Creek, an abandoned stage station then oc- 
cupied by troops of the Eleventh Kansas Cavab-y. The fight was May 20; 
two hundred Indians attacked Deer Creek and ran off twenty horses from the 
cavah-y. Colonel Plumb reports one soldier killed. 



212 THE FIGHTING CHE\^NNES 

close after the pipe-bearers, chiefs and older men, who rode in 
advance. The company moved slowly, so as not to cause the 
rising of a cloud of dust which might warn the troops of the 
presence of the Indians. 

Before they had reached the tops of the hills the Crazy Dogs 
halted the Indians and a few men, some of whom had field-glasses, 
went up and looked over the crest of the hills. The warriors 
behind the hill were making final preparations for battle, taking 
their war clothing from the sacks, holding the different articles 
up to the four points of the compass, and to the sun, and then 
putting them on. The owner of a shield stripped off its cover, 
shook loose its various ornaments, held it four times toward the 
earth, and then shook it four times toward the sky, afterward 
hanging it on his left arm, where it should be carried in battle. 
All these ceremonies and the prayers made were supplications 
for protection and success in the fight that was to come. 

The party which had been sent down to the neighborhood of 
the bridge rode about there, hoping to induce the soldiers to 
follow them into an ambuscade. The soldiers came out of the 
gate of the fort, but would not follow the Indians to any great 
distance beyond the bridge. 

The troops had a howitzer, and when the Indians came back 
and rode up near to the soldiers some shots were fired from this 
big gun. The shooting greatly excited the Indians behind the 
hill, who finally broke through the soldiers, and in a mass ran up 
to the crest of the bluffs, and from there watched what was going 
on. It appears, nevertheless, that the troops did not see these 
people, who at length returned to their camp. 

When it was seen that the soldiers would not follow the In- 
dians and it began to get late in the day the chiefs sent High 
Backed Wolf,' a Cheyenne, to the men who were near the fort, 
ordering them to come back to the main body. One of these men 
spoke angrily to High Backed Wolf, and said: "Now, when I see 
anything and go to get it, I want to succeed in getting it." He 
wished to keep on fighting. High Backed Wolf said: "All right, 
I feel just as you do about that, but I am trying to do what the 
head men have asked me to do. Come on now, let us swim 
the river and get close to the soldiers." They did so. 

^ Hob nIh"o hka'i yo hos. 



PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 213 

A small party of soldiers was coming up the river, and had 
nearly reached the post. The Indians charged them and rode 
through the soldiers almost to the walls of the post, where they 
met other soldiers who had just come out to help those who were 
approaching. A young man named Iron counted coup on one 
of the soldiers, and here High Backed Wolf was shot, but clung 
to his horse for some distance before falling. The Indians say 
that he was shot by a musket ball, but others believe that the 
officer, near whom he rode, killed him with a revolver. The other 
Cheyennes now stopped fighting and recrossed the river, leaving 
the dead man on the south side. Next morning when his body 
was recovered by his father. Blind Wolf, and two or three others, 
it was found that he had a wound in the breast, apparently from 
an arrow, and a little piece of sinew was sticking out of the wound. 
This would suggest that he had been shot also by one of the 
Shoshoni Indians, of whom there were two or three at the fort. 

Black White Man^ says of the death of High Backed Wolf 
that before tliis fighting began White Bull ^ had told the Cheyennes 
that at this time they must not hold in the mouth any metal, 
especially no iron and no bullet. High Backed Wolf and his 
brother Horse Black^ had chased the soldiers for some distance, 
but presently the soldiers stopped and High Backed Wolf, while 
loading his six-shooter, put a pistol bullet in his mouth and was 
kUled. 

Next morning early about one-half the men in the camp, 
keeping out of sight, went down to the river below the bridge 
and hid themselves in the brush and timber along the little stream 
and the other half, going around north of the river bottom out 
of sight, hid above the bridge. The small party of Indians 
acting as decoys had again been sent down to the fort to try to 
bring out the soldiers. After a time a party of troops on gray 
horses came out of the post and crossed the bridge. The Indians 
supposed they were pursuing the decoys, but they were going 
to the relief of a wagon-train that was coming down the river, of 
which the Indians as yet knew nothing. The Cheyennes were 
watching them from the tops of the hills and making signs to others 

1 Black White Man = Negro, M6hk sta'vi'hio. 
^ White Bull, Ho tu'a'hwo' ko mas. 
' Horse Black, Mo In'a m6hk sta'vSs. 



214 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

who could not see so well to keep still and wait. Then as the 
soldiers rode off the bridge and started up the long flat the Indians 
signalled for half the party below the bridge to get behind the 
soldiers and cut them off from the bridge, while the other half 
should go around the other way and meet them. Those who had 
got between the soldiers and the bridge were the first to charge. 
The soldiers started up the road on a fast gallop, riding toward 
the hills and away from the bridge and the post, and then met the 
party that was ahead of the soldiers, who charged on them. For 
a short time the soldiers fought hard to go forward in the direc- 
tion that they had been going, that is, away from the post, but at 
last overpowered by numbers they turned and rode straight for 
the bridge. A soldier seized the reins of the horse ridden by the 
brother of White Horse and beat him over the head with a revolver. 
White Bull charged on the man and struck him across the head 
with a sabre, knocking him off his horse. Most of the soldiers 
succeeded in crossing the river, but the oflBcer and some other 
men were killed. 

An Indian said: "The soldiers charged straight toward us as 
we rushed forward to meet them. I saw the officer sitting his 
saddle with a long arrow sticking in his forehead. His horse, a 
big gray, was running away with him. He passed me, and, look- 
ing back, I saw him go down among the crowd of warriors at my 
back. The smoke and dust hid everything." 

Some of the Indians say that perhaps Lieutenant Collins might 
have crossed the bridge in safety except that his horse ran away 
with him, and he could not control it. It was captured by the 
Indians and lived long in the Cheyenne camp, but was always 
uncontrollable and constantly ran away. 

Although the whites were so few by comparison with the In- 
dians only eight men^ were killed with Lieutenant Collins at this 
time. To this day it is impossible to make the Indians believe 
that the number was so small. 

Soon after all this happened people on the hills began to sig- 
nal that soldiers were coming down the north side of the river, 
and soon the white-covered wagons were seen coming. Quite a 
long distance before the troops reached the bridge they halted, 
corralled their wagons and unharnessed their teams. As the 

1 Coutant, History of Wyoming, p. 473. 



PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 215 

drivers were taking the animals down to the river bank the In- 
dians charged them and they at once left their mules and rushed 
back to the wagons. The Indians charged the wagon corral, 
but the troops had taken refuge in and behind the wagons and had 
cut loopholes in the wagon-boxes through which they fired and 
killed a number of Indians. Meantime the mules were rushing 
about, but a Cheyenne rode in and captured the bell-mare, and 
when he led her away the mules all followed her blindly and were 
taken into camp. The soldiers kept firing from the wagons, 
and now Roman Nose ordered the men who had guns to creep 
up as close as possible to the wagons and to shoot into the wagons. 
They fired a number of volleys in this way. Then Roman Nose 
and two or three others rode close to the troops to induce them 
all to discharge their guns, and presently charging the wagons 
found all the soldiers dead or badly wounded. Three soldiers 
cut off from the wagons ran to the river and swam across. One 
of these was killed later. Another carried his revolver across 
above the water. Left Hand, a brother of Roman Nose, and 
some other Indians followed him across the river. The soldier 
climbed the bank and hid among the willows, and as the Indian 
came out of the water the soldier killed him, and with his compan- 
ion reached the stockade. 

Among the Indians who had recently joined this great party, 
though only a portion of them were present at the fight at the 
Platte Bridge, was a large village of Brule Sioux. Up to this 
time these people had taken no part in the war. They had been 
encamped at Fort Laramie, in charge of a white man named 
Elston, and had been subsisted by the troops. There had been 
complaint of the cost of this, and General Dodge ordered them 
sent east to a point where food was less costly. Colonel Moon- 
light, commander at Fort Laramie, sent them under guard to 
Fort Kearny, in Nebraska. It was a large village, about one 
hundred and eighty-five lodges, and Elston had them all in good 
control and had a uniformed and armed company of the Indians, 
whom he had been using to police the camp. 

Fort Kearny was in the Pawnee country, and the Brules 
feared that if they were sent there the Pawnees would attack 
them in great force. They were thus much frightened and dis- 
satisfied — exceedingly loath to go. Captain Fonts left Laramie 



216 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

with these Indians June 11, 1865. He had one hundred and 
thirty-five men and four officers of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. 
They had hardly started before the Indians began to complain 
that the escort treated them badly, and abused the young girls. 
The result of this added discontent was that before they had 
been more than a day or two on the road the Indians held a secret 
council and decided to attack their guard at the next camp, and 
to join the hostiles who were in the north. The next camp was 
made on Horse Creek,i a small stream on the Platte. Where 
the road crossed the creek, near its mouth, the troops put up 
their tents on the east bank, while the Indians camped on the 
west side near a bluff overgrown with willows. Early next morn- 
ing a part of the troops and the wagon-train started down the 
road, while the soldiers who were to guard the Indians crossed 
Horse Creek and rode toward the lodges, to count the people and 
get them started on their way. 

As the soldiers rode up, the women and children slipped in 
among the willows behind the lodges and hid, while the warriors 
came out and lined up to be counted, holding their bows and the 
few pistols they possessed hidden under their blankets. The 
plan was to let the soldiers approach very near, and then attack 
and kill them all, but the hot-headed ness of some of the young men 
interfered with this plan. The officer was riding far ahead of 
his men, and as he rode close to the Indians the young men could 
not restrain themselves, and, leaping forward, killed the officer. 
No sooner had the troopers witnessed this than they wheeled 
about and galloped oflF as fast as they could go. The official 
record seems to show that the troops had no ammunition, for 
none had been issued the night before, though Lieutenant W. 
Haywood urged the commanding officer to issue ammunition to 
the men. Captain Wilcox, on learning what had taken place, 
followed the Indians, and found them just crossing the Platte, 
the women and children swimming the ponies, while the men were 
on the bank ready to fight. He did not attack them. 

Colonel Moonlight at Fort Laramie, advised by telegraph from 
Camp Mitchell of what had happened, crossed the Platte with a 
strong force of cavalry and struck out northward in pursuit of 
the Indians. He followed their trail from where they had crossed 

^ Moh in'6 hS,m i'yo he. 



PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 217 

the Platte and camped on Dead Man's Fork, one hundred and 
twenty miles northeast of Laramie. He had no idea where the 
Indians were, and turned loose his horses to graze. The next day 
the Indians charged his camp and captured his horses. Moon- 
hght saj's that the men got their horses and tried to mount, 
but that the animals broke away and ran straight at the Indians. 
The Indians say that the horses seem to have broken their picket- 
lines, and came rushing in a mass at the Indians, who thought 
that a large force of cavalry was charging them, and ran away. 
They very soon discovered what was happening, and closed in on 
the herd and carried it oflP. There was no fighting, but Moon- 
light was left afoot. He was obliged to burn his saddles and 
equipments, and march back on foot to Laramie, through a rough 
country, where there was little water. The soldiers reached 
Laramie after a hard march, and were more or less pestered by a 
few Indians who kept hanging on their rear. They were very 
angry at Moonlight, through whose carelessness they had lost 
their mounts.^ 

Moonlight was much censured for losing his horses, and 
shortly afterward w^as mustered out of the service by General 
Connor, who, however, gave no reason for the action. 

After the fight at the Platte Bridge a small party of Indians 
went down the stage road toward Fort Laramie. They captured 
some ranches and burned some stage stations, killing a few sol- 
diers, after which they returned north again. The village was 
found on Lodge-pole Creek^ near Powder River. Soon all the 



1 Dead Man's Fork is a tributary of Hat Creek, which is a southern tribu- 
tary of the South Cheyenne River. Dead Man's Fork is in the extreme 
northwest corner of Nebraska in the rough country, where much pine grows. 

In the evening (June 17 ?) MoonUght camped one hundred miles northeast 
of Fort Laramie. Next morning before dawn he moved on, and after making 
twenty miles halted about noon in the valley of Dead Man's Fork. Here he 
turned his horses out to graze, but some California officers who had served 
against Indians under General Connor protested against turning the animals 
loose. Moonlight paid no heed to what they said, so these officers had the 
California men picket their horses near camp. The Indians soon appeared 
and stampeded the stock in broad dayhght. Most of the CaUfornia horses, 
on picket, were saved; the loose animals were all lost. 

General Dodge reports that MoonUght permitted his camp to be surprised 
in broad day, and had most of his herd run off. 

* Clear Creek of the whites. 



218 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

war parties of Cheyennes and Sioux reached the camp, bringing 
much plunder — horses and goods taken from emigrants. 

This was the general course of events at the Platte Bridge^ 
as the Indians tell what they saw. The precise dates, however, 
and the sequence of events is given in a paper by Mr. S. H. Fair- 
child, of Alma, Kansas, entitled "The Eleventh Kansas Regi- 
ment at Platte Bridge." 

From this paper a few paragraphs are extracted: 

June 26, Lieut. W. Y. Drew of Company I with 25 men, while repairing 
the telegraph Hne had a hard scrimmage with some 300 warriors that pounced 
down upon them. On the 2d of July, the whole of Company I was attacked 
by several hundred Indians some twelve miles from the bridge. Major 
Anderson then ordered a detachment of troops from D, H, and K companies 
to report at headquarters at the bridge for duty, thus bringing up the number 
of enlisted men to 120 and two tipis of Snake Indians. This force was wholly 
inadequate to be stationed in the heart of the Indian country swarming with 
savages. 

About the middle of July I went with a mail detail of twelve men from 
Platte Bridge a hundred miles down the line toward Fort Laramie. We were 
gone ten days, having to travel mostly in the night, as it was unsafe to travel 
by daylight in small bodies. While at Horse Shoe Station we learned that the 
Indians had appeared again along the North Platte and in our rear in large 
numbers, and were liable to give us serious trouble on our return. We arrived 
at Deer Creek, where our company was stationed, on the 24th of July. 
Another detail of twelve men under Corp. Henry Grimm relieved us and 
proceeded to Platte Bridge with the mail. There arrived there on the 25th 
also a small detachment of the Eleventh Ohio from Sweet Water Bridge. The 
Indians had been hanging around the bridge for several days and were bold 
and saucy, which indicated that they were there in force. 

On the morning of July 25 an attempt was made to stampede 
the horses grazing below the bridge, but they were at last driven 
into the stockade by the soldiers. Reinforcements coming from 
the post, the Indians were driven back, but a little later they 
drove the troops back, and "recovered the body of their dead 
chief." This is presumably the occasion when High Backed Wolf 
was killed. 

About nine o'clock on the morning of the 26th, a train of wagons from 
Sweet Water, escorted by twenty-five men under command of Sergt. Amos 

1 Transactions of Kansas State Historical Society, vol. VIII, p. 352. (To- 
peka, 1904.) 



PLATTE BRIDGE FIGHT 219 

J. Custard, Company H, Eleventh Kansas, was seen coming over the hills 
some two or tliree miles away. The howitzers were fired to warn them of 
danger. 

A detail of twenty-five men from I and K companies under Sergeant 
Hankammer, including the mail party under Corporal Grimm, was ordered to 
go to the relief of Sergt. Custard. Lieut. Caspar Collins, Eleventh Ohio, who 
had just arrived with Grimm's mail party volunteered to take command of 
the detachment. They crossed the bridge to the north side of the river and 
at full speed made their way toward the hills. They had proceeded about 
half a mile when from behind the hills and out of the ravines came swooping 
down upon them hundreds of Indians, yelling, whooping, shooting arrows and 
rifles and riding in circles about them like so many fiends, while a large body 
of them, coming down from the bluffs, attempted to get between them and 
the bridge. Capt. Greer, Company I, seeing the peril threatening the brave 
boys under Collins, charged, crossed the bridge with the balance of his company 
and poured a deadly fire into the howling savages, driving them back, and thus 
opening a way of retreat for Collins and his men, if they succeeded in making 
their way tlirough the hundreds of savages that surrounded them. Collins, 
finding that more than half of his men were killed or wounded, gave command 
for everyone to make for the bridge. It was a race for life. Nehring, a private 
of Company K, Eleventh Kansas, not understanding the order, dismounted 
to fight from a deep washout in the road. Grimm looking around, yelled 
to him in German: "To the bridge." That was the last that was seen of poor 
Nehring. Camp, also of Company K, Eleventh Kansas, lost his horse and then 
ran for dear life, but when within a few rods of safety was overtaken and 
tomahawked. Sergeant Hankammer's horse was wounded, but carried him 
safely to the bridge and there dropped. 

A wounded soldier fell from his horse and called out to his comrades: 
"Don't leave me; don't leave me." Collins turned and rode back to the 
man and thus lost all possibility of saving his own life. The brave lieutenant 
was mounted on a magnificent horse and might have escaped had he not gone 
back on this errand of mercy. . . . Our soldiers held the bridge and stockade, 
although the Indians crossed the river above and below the bridge and fought 
desperately, harassing oiu* forces on every side throughout that day and a 
part of the next. On the evening of the 26th two men came out of the chap- 
arral in a bend of the river on the south side, about one-half mile above the 
bridge. A party went out to rescue them. They proved to be Company D 
boys from Sergeant Custard's command. They said that when they heard the 
howitzers in the morning. Custard ordered a corporal to take five men and 
go forward to see what the firing meant. They had proceeded but a short 
distance when they were cut off from Custard's escort. Pursued by the In- 
dians they struck for the river, but only three of them succeeded in crossing 
to the south bank and one of these was killed before the friendly shelter of 
the chaparral was reached. The nineteen men remaining with the train 
under Custard were also surrounded, but made a brave fight from ten in the 
forenoon until three in the afternoon. From that time there was an ominous 
silence, which to the troops at the bridge boded ill for Custard and his men. 



220 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The following day the Indians had apparently withdrawn, 
and troops were sent out to bury the dead. 

Shortly after this the Eleventh Kansas was relieved by the 
Sixth Michigan, and was ordered to Fort Leavenworth to be 
mustered out. 



xvni 

FORT PHIL KEARNY 

1866 

Seventy-nine oflficers and men, and two civilians were killed 
December 21, 1866, near the recently established Fort Phil 
Kearny. Captain W. J. Fetterman, brevet lieutenant colonel, 
was in command of the troops, and the annihilation of the com- 
mand was due to his disobedience of orders. For ten years after 
it took place this so-called Fetterman massacre was the Indian 
battle most talked of in the western country. 

The Harney-Sanborn treaty of 1865 had guaranteed to the 
Indians of the northern country — Sioux, Cheyennes, and Arap- 
ahoes — the land which they occupied, and in which there was 
still abundant game. It was the territory lying between the 
Black Hills, the Rocky Mountains, and the Yellowstone River, 
generally known as the Powder River country, the great tract 
extending from the Little Missouri on the east to the foothills 
of the mountains on the west. 

The discovery of gold in Idaho, in 1861, and somewhat later in 
Montana, had created much excitement east and west, and from 
all directions miners and prospectors set out for the gold-fields. 
The principal routes thither were the Missouri River, which was 
available only for a portion of the year, the trail up the Arkansas 
to Denver, and the Oregon trail through Nebraska and up the 
Platte and Sweetwater Rivers. After the discovery of the Mon- 
tana mines, efforts were made to select a new road which should 
greatly shorten the distance to the mines. That chosen was the 
Bozeman trail, which passed directly through the country which 
had been conceded to the wild Indians. 

In the latter part of 1865 and in 1866 the Government tried to 
make an agreement with these northern Indians for a right of 
way through this territory to INIontana. A few of the Sioux 
assented to such an arrangement, but the Ogallalas and the Chey- 

221 



222 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ennes declined to sign the treaty. Nevertheless, in the spring of 
1866 General H. B. Carrington was ordered to proceed from Fort 
Kearny, Nebraska, via Fort Laramie, to the northwest, to gar- 
rison Camp Connor, established the year before by the Powder 
River expedition — afterward Fort Reno — and to build two new 
forts near the Bozeman road. 

General Carrington reached Fort Laramie in June with about 
seven hundred men of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, of whom 
five hundred are said to have been raw recruits. They were armed 
for the most part with old-fashioned muzzle-loading Springfield 
muskets, though the band had Spencer breech-loading carbines. 
The amount of ammunition carried by the command was wholly 
insuQicient. General Carrington was a man of great ability and 
of varied pursuits, but he knew nothing of Indians and their ways 
and so was ill fitted to command an expedition sent out into the 
heart of a country where there was certain to be fighting. Car- 
rington reached Fort Reno late in June, set to work repairing it, 
left a garrison there, and marched on. On the 13th of July, 1866, 
he made camp on the banks of Big Piney Creek, a tributary of 
Powder River, and there began preparations for building the 
new post, which was called Fort Phil Kearny. 

The troops had already been warned by the Indians that they 
must leave the country and that no new forts must be built. No 
attention was paid to the warning, and the troops had scarcely 
settled themselves on the site where the fort was to be built when 
their horses were taken by the Indians, and the party that fol- 
lowed them was attacked and several were killed and wounded. 
The same day a French trader and his outfit were killed, and 
from that time on constant watchfulness was required. Early 
in August General Carrington located Fort C. F. Smith about 
ninety miles northwest of Phil Kearny, sending two companies 
to that point to build the post. Meantime timber was being 
brought in to be sawed; a stockade was put up, and quarters, 
stables, shops, and a corral were built. Fort Phil Kearny was to 
be, and afterward was, a very complete establishment. 

The trains sent out to bring timber into the Government saw- 
mill were constantly harassed by small parties of Indians, and 
these attacks resulted in the killing of a number of the troops. 
Vedettes were stationed on some high hills — Sullivant Hills — to 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 223 

watch for the approach of enemies, and when a gathering of 
Indians was seen within range, howitzers, loaded with explosive 
shells, were fired at them, and always dispersed them. A little 
southwest of the post was a high, steep ridge, called Lodge Trail 
Ridge, which divides the waters of Powder River from those of 
Tongue River. 

The officers and men of General Carrington's command were 
ignorant of Indians and Indian fighting. Service on the battle- 
fields of the South many of them had seen, but Indians on the 
naked prairie, or in the rough mountains, were to all an unknown 
quantity. Some of the officers seemed to regard the Indians as a 
sort of game to be hunted for sport. The books quote them as 
expressing a keen desire to "take a scalp," or to "get Red Cloud's 
scalp." 

Early in December Colonel Fetterman with forty men, sent 
out to protect a wood-train, pursued the Indians into a situation 
where the troops were almost surrounded. In an effort to inter- 
cept the Indians, however, General Carrington led out twenty 
additional men, and coming up at the critical moment rescued 
the command, with a loss of two or three of the party. This 
experience taught General Carrington a lesson, as is shown by 
the orders he gave Fetterman later. 

On the 21st of December the picket on SuUivant Hills sig- 
nalled that the wood-train was being attacked, and a relief party 
of seventy-six men — forty-nine from the Eighteenth Infantry 
and twenty-seven from the Second Cavalry — was ordered out. 
General Carrington gave the command to Captain Powell, Lieu- 
tenant Grummond commanding the cavalry, but just as they were 
about to start Colonel Fetterman begged for the command of 
the expedition, pleading his seniority in justffication. His re- 
quest was granted. Captain Fred H. Brown volunteered to ac- 
company the troops, and two frontiersmen, Wheatley and Fisher, 
went with them. 

Before the command left the stockade General Carrington gave 
orders to Colonel Fetterman, twice repeated, to relieve the wood- 
train and drive back the Indians, but on no account to pursue 
the Indians beyond the Lodge Trail Ridge. The force set out, 
but instead of proceeding directly toward the corralled wood-train 
it passed back of the Sullivant Hills on the southwestern slope of 



224 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the Lodge Trail Ridge, perhaps with the purpose of cutting off 
the Indians who were attacking the train. As the troops ap- 
proached the train the Indians dispersed, and at the same time a 
number appeared close to the fort. The cannon was fired, and 
the shell exploded near them. It was now discovered that no 
surgeon had gone with the relief party, and Doctor Hines with 
one man was sent toward the wood-train with instructions to 
join Fetterman. The wood-train was free from attack at the 
moment and Hines started after Fetterman, but saw many In- 
dians in the country before him and returned to the post. Firing 
began to be heard from the other side of Lodge Trail Ridge, con- 
tinuing for some time, but gradually becoming less and less. 
General Carrington despatched Captain Ten Eyck and a force to 
help Fetterman, giving him all his available men. By this time 
the firing had ceased. In the post hours of anxious waiting en- 
sued. 

When the relief party looked down from the top of Lodge 
Trail Ridge no soldiers were to be seen, but all over the valley, 
and above all on the ridge running down toward Clear Creek, 
were excited Indians riding about and shouting their war cries, 
evidently celebrating a triumph. 

Captain Ten Eyck sent a messenger to the fort to report the 
situation, and presently the relief party descended to the battle- 
ground, for the Indians, satisfied with what they had done, began 
to withdraw and soon disappeared. Wagons were sent for, and 
late in the evening Ten Eyck's relief party came to the post with 
the bodies of forty-nine men. The next day General Carrington 
with eighty men returned to the battle-ground and found the re- 
maining bodies, which were brought in for burial. No white 
man lived to tell the tale of the fight and for what happened on 
the field we must depend on Indian witnesses. 

The Indians engaged in the fight were very numerous. They 
were chieflj' Sioux, with some Cheyennes and Arapahoes; and 
they practised the simple strategy — so often and so effectively 
used among the plains tribes — of sending out a few men on swift 
horses to induce the enemy to pursue them into an ambuscade 
where a large force was concealed. The Cheyennes and Arap- 
ahoes took part in this fight merely as a matter of friendship 
for the Sioux, although the fact that a few days before some 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 225 

Cheyennes had been fired on by the troops at the fort may have 
made the tribe more willing to take part in this battle. 

In the printed accounts and on the tablet which marks the 
monument on this field it is stated that the Indians were led by 
Red Cloud/ the Ogallala chief, who, however, according to all 
Indian testimony, was not present — at least under tliis name. 
They say that the principal chiefs of the Sioux were named 
Black Leg and Black Shield. ^ The important Cheyenne men 
were Dull Knife, Walking Rabbit, Wolf Lying Down, Black 
Moccasin (or Iron), Painted Thunder, Walking White Man, and 
Wild Hog. 

I have talked of this fight with a number of the Cheyennes 
who took part in it, and from several of these have had the detailed 
story. One of them — White Elk — accompanied me over the 
battle-ground and pointed out the route of the troops, the hiding- 
places of the Indians, and the spots where different groups of the 
soldiers fell. 

Tliis is the history of the events of that day as White Elk 
saw them, and as he recalls them forty-eight years after the 
event. He was then a young man sixteen or eighteen years of 
age: 

It was at the beginning of cold weather. The Cheyennes were 
camped on Muddy Creek, and Crazy Mule was exhibiting to them 
his power. Different people were shooting at him, but the bul- 
lets and the arrows did not enter his flesh. 

Soon after these ceremonies were over White Elk, Plenty 
Camps, and Rolling Bull began to talk together about making 
an excursion to war, and at last determined to go, and set out 
toward the mountains. After leaving the camp they began to 
discuss the route they should follow to reach the country of the 
Shoshoni. They determined to go in below Fort Phil Kearny to 
the head of Powder River. 

As they were marching along, just getting out of Tongue 
River Canyon, they met four Cheyennes returning to the camp, 
who asked: "Where are you going?" The young men said they 
were going to war against the Shoshoni. The four men warned 
them, saying: "Be careful how you go about the fort. Up to 

* At this time chief of a small band — Bad Face — of Ogallala. 
^ Mentioned Tenth Annual Report Bureau Ethnology, p. 751. 



226 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

this time we have always been friendly with those people, but 
now they have been shooting at us. They are on the watch; so 
be careful." The three kept on their way and stopped at Big 
Springs on Tongue River. After they had reached camp, Rolling 
Bull asked : " What do you think of this that has been said to us ? 
Shall we go back?" Plenty Camps said: "Let us go on a little 
farther and see what will happen." Both these men were older 
than White Elk. The message given by the four Cheyennes, of 
course, threatened some danger from the post, and besides this 
to be warned in this way just as they were starting out on a jour- 
ney was a bad omen. 

Plenty Camps, who seemed to be thinking, at length spoke, 
saying: "I believe that those four men we passed must have done 
some mischief up there by the fort. Let us stay here overnight 
and to-morrow return to the camp." 

At Fort Phil Kearny something like this had perhaps happened : 
The Sioux had been attacking the wood-trains and already had 
killed some people. They had thus shown their hostility. The 
four Cheyennes may have ventured near the fort, been recog- 
nized as Indians, and so have been fired on by the troops. To 
these soldiers an Indian was an Indian and so an enemy. 

Next morning the three young men remained in this camp till 
late in the day, when Plenty Camps said: "We will not go in to- 
night; let us sleep here again." Next morning early Rolling Bull 
said to White Elk: "Friend, get up and go down to the river and 
get some water." \Vhite Elk got the water, and had come half- 
way back to the camp when he thought he heard some one utter a 
yelp, and stopped to listen. As he listened closely he heard far 
off a number of people singing. He carried his water to their 
shelter and said to the others: "I think I heard a number of peo- 
ple singing." As they stood there listening on a sudden four 
Sioux rode in sight. They rode up to the camp and spoke to 
Rolling Bull, who could talk their language. He turned and said 
to his companions: "These men tell me that many people are 
coming, some on foot and some on horseback. Women are 
coming with the men. They are coming up Tongue River on their 
way to the Cheyenne camp." 

The Sioux told them that this was a war party brought to- 
gether for the sole purpose of fighting the soldiers who were at 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 227 

Fort Phil Kearny. The Indians had laid a plan to try to get 
the soldiers into the open. They intended to send a small party 
to make an attack on the post to see if they could not induce the 
soldiers to come out from the fort. "If we cannot get the sol- 
diers to come out as we want them to/' they said, "then we will 
attack the post." 

The four Sioux stayed there talking with the Cheyennes, and 
presently the whole Sioux party came in sight. Some of the older 
Sioux shook hands with the Cheyennes and asked them to return 
with the Sioux to the Cheyenne camp. The Cheyennes went 
with them and that night they camped at the Big Springs near the 
head of the canyon. 

At dark an old crier went about the circle of the camp and 
called to all the companies of soldiers to get together, for a council 
was to be held. The Sioux men formed in a big circle about 
the camp and the chiefs and the soldier chiefs gathered in the 
centre, where the Cheyennes too were taken. There was much 
talking, all of it in Sioux and so comprehended only by Rolling 
Bull. 

After they had finished talking the Sioux came over to the 
Cheyennes and said to them: "Now to-night we have made our 
plans as to what we shall do, and we intend to ask the Cheyennes 
to join us. We have chosen four men to go on ahead and notify 
the Cheyenne and Arapaho camp of our plans." These two 
camps were close together. The four men selected had got their 
horses and saddled them and now rode up, and the Sioux chief 
spoke to them and at length they rode off. 

The next day near sundown the four Sioux messengers re- 
turned to the war party and told the chiefs that they had reported 
to the Cheyennes just what the chiefs had ordered, but that the 
Cheyennes had said that they must have time to get ready. 
Nevertheless, the Cheyennes must have left their camp in the 
night and come part way toward the Sioux camp, for the next 
morning — not very early — the Cheyennes and Arapahoes charged 
the Sioux camp — a friendly act. Then, after the charge, the 
Cheyenne chiefs gathered by themselves and told their young men 
that the Sioux had sent for them to help fight the soldiers. They 
must not w^eaken, but every man must stand his ground and do 
his best. After that all the Cheyennes fell in single file and rode 



228 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

all around the Sioux camp and stopped on the river below the 
camp and dismounted. They remained there overnight. 

Next morning they went as far as Crow Standing Off Creek — 
Prairie Dog Creek — and camped. After leaving this camp they 
went up Crow Standing Off Creek beyond where it forks, keep- 
ing up the right-hand fork. Soon they came to a flat prairie 
and the Sioux were directed to form a line with a wide front — 
abreast. There were many of them. A Cheyenne chief called 
out to his people, saying: "Men, do not fall in line with the Sioux. 
We are not carrying on this war party." The Arapahoes did not 
form abreast like the Sioux, but stood to one side. 

Soon a person, half man and half woman^ — He e man eh" — 
with a black cloth over his head, riding a sorrel horse, pushed 
out from among the Sioux and passed over a hill, zigzagging one 
way and another as he went. He had a whistle, and as he rode 
off he kept sounding it. While he was riding over the hill some 
of the Cheyennes were told by the Sioux that he was looking for 
the enemy — soldiers. Presently he rode back, and came to where 
the chiefs were gathered and said: "I have ten men, five in each 
hand; do you want them?" The Sioux chiefs said to him: "No, 
we do not wish them. Look at all these people here. Do you 
think ten men are enough to go around?" The He e man eh'' 
turned his horse and rode away again, riding in the same way as 
before. Soon he came back, riding a little faster than before 
and swaying from one side to the other on his horse. Now he 
said : " I have ten men in each hand, twenty in all. Do you wish 
them ? " The same man replied : saying, " No, I do not wish them; 
there are too many people here and too few enemies." Without 
a word the half-man-half-woman turned his horse and rode off. 
The third time he returned he said : " I have twenty in one hand 
and thirty in the other. The thirty are in the hand on the side 
toward which I am leaning." 

"No," said the Sioux, "there are too many people here. It is 
not worth while to go on for so small a number." The He e 
man eh" rode away. 

On the fourth return he rode up fast and as his horse stopped 
he fell off and both hands struck the ground. "Answer me 

' A man dressed as a woman, a "berdash," supposed sometimes to be a 
hermaphrodite. 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 229 

quickly," he said, ''I have a hundred or more," and when the 
Sioux and Cheyennes heard this they all yelled. This was what 
they wanted. While he was on the ground some men struck the 
ground near his hands, counting the coup. Then they all went 
back and camped on Tongue River, at the mouth of the little 
creek they were going to follow up. 

That night the names of ten young men were called out, and 
those called were ordered to start that night and to be ready the 
next morning to attack the post. There were two Cheyennes, 
two Arapahoes, and two from each of the three tribes of Sioux 
who were present. The two Cheyennes were Little Wolf and 
Wolf Left Hand. After he had been chosen Little Wolf rode 
over to the fire at which his brother, Big Nose, was sitting. A 
few days before the two brothers had quarrelled with one an- 
other. Little Wolf said to his brother: "Brother, I have been 
called to go and attack the post; take my horse and do you go." 
Big Nose was still angry and said: "Take back your horse; I do 
not want him." Bull Hump, who wished to make the brothers 
friends again, said to Big Nose: "My friend, here are my moc- 
casins and my war clothes. If you have any bad feeling you may 
have those clothes to lie in" (i. e., to be killed in). Big Nose 
accepted the clothes and agreed to go. Little Wolf and his 
brother Big Nose were both good men in a fight — one as good as 
the other. 

Some time after the young men sent to the fort had gone — 
just as day was about to break — all the men were called and 
ordered to saddle their horses, and when this had been done they 
moved out. They followed the stream up to the forks and there 
stopped. The Cheyennes kept by themselves and did not mingle 
with the Sioux. At the forks they stopped and a Sioux cried out, 
haranguing the Cheyennes, and asking them to choose which 
side of the ridge they wished to be on, the upper or the lower 
side. The Indians hoped to draw the soldiers down this ridge 
between their two forces hidden on either side. 

One of the Cheyenne chiefs said that his people would take 
the upper side of the ridge, and presently the order was cried out 
for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes to take the upper — west — 
side. In going up to the place selected, the people who were on 
foot stopped near the lower end of the ridge, not far from the 



230 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

stream, while those on horseback, who had the longest distance 
to go, went on up above. All the Cheyennes and Arapahoes 
were mounted. Some Sioux women who were along stayed be- 
low with the Sioux men who were on foot. 

After the different parties had gone to their places and hidden 
themselves everyone kept very still. All were waiting, listening 
for what might be heard. After a little time a single shot was 
heard. Later it was said that when the young men who had 
been sent to the fort had charged the post they had killed a 
sentry. This was the shot. A long period of silence followed, 
during which they waited and listened; then a number of shots 
were heard, but the firing lasted for a few minutes only. It was 
afterward said that some troops came out from the fort as if to 
attack the decoy Indians and then turned back and went into 
the fort and that someone who was with the soldiers made mo- 
tions to the young Indians to go away, that the soldiers were 
going to eat. This was the Indian understanding of the signs, 
whatever they may have been. 

The Sioux signed back to them that to-day they would get a 
full stomach of fighting. The soldiers re-entered the post and the 
young Indians remained in sight riding about. 

After a time a number of bugle-calls were heard and soon 
after a troop of cavalry marched out of the post toward these 
young men, and after them a company of infantry. At a bugle- 
call the cavalry charged and fired at the Indians who, of course, 
ran away. This was the distant shooting heard. 

It was some time before the watchers heard any more shooting. 
The cavalry after firing had stopped, and would follow no longer, 
and the Indians were obliged to return and attack again, be shot 
at, and followed a little farther. In this way the infantry kept 
well closed up with the cavalry, which was perhaps the reason the 
cavalry followed slowly. 

After the third and fourth volleys the shooting came closer, 
and before long some of the Indians came riding down the ridge 
and a little later another man, Big Nose, the Cheyenne, mounted 
on a black horse, was seen riding back and forth across the ridge 
before the soldiers, seeming to fight them and they were shooting 
at him as hard as they could. It looked as if Big Nose was trying 
to fight and hold back the soldiers in order to help someone ahead 




SCENE OF THE FORT PHIL KEARNY FIGHT, 1866. 

The town of Sheridan, Wyoming, is about at the jioncture of Big Goose Creek and 

Little Goose Creek, about 25 miles north of Fort Phil Kearny. 



232 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

of him to get away. From the place where the Indians were 
waiting Big Nose seemed almost against the soldiers. The great 
body of Indians hidden along the ridge kept themselves well 
concealed. Not a move was made nor a sound heard. 

After Big Nose, followed slowly by the soldiers, had come down 
off the steep ridge the troops stopped, and Big Nose charged back 
and seemed to go in among the soldiers so that he was lost to 
sight. He went into the troop from the right and came out on 
the left, wheeled his horse, rode into them again and came out, and 
turned as if to go back. 

The troops kept following, coming down the old Bozeman 
Road which runs down the crest of the ridge. The Sioux on foot 
were hidden in the grass on the flat beyond the end of the ridge, 
perhaps one and a half miles distant from the place where the 
troops came to it at its upper end. The mounted Sioux were 
hidden behind two rocky ridges on the east side of this ridge, 
while the Cheyennes were on the west side of it. It had been 
announced that a certain Cheyenne, Little Horse, who was a 
Contrary, should give his people the word to charge, and when the 
proper time came this word was to be passed on from one to an- 
other until all were notified and then all should spring up and 
charge. 

The cavalry, who had been following the ridge down nearly 
to the flat by the stream, were now pretty close to the Sioux 
footmen, and the infantry were well within the Indians' lines. 
When the decoys had forded the stream beyond the end of the 
ridge and the cavalry had nearly come to it the decoys separated 
into two parties, riding away from each other, and then, turn- 
ing, came back and crossed each other. This was very likely a 
signal, and the Indians charged. Little Horse, following the 
law of the Contraries, held his contrary lance in his left hand. 
The Cheyennes watched him, and when they saw him pass his left 
hand behind his neck and grasp the contrary lance with his right 
hand they knew that he was about to charge, and all sprang up. 

When the charge was made the sound of many hoofs made a 
noise like thunder and the soldiers began to fall back. On the 
ridge near the place where it leaves the hill are many large loose 
flat stones. The infantry took a position behind these. The 
cavalry moved back up the hill and stopped. 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 233 

On the Infantry hidden among the rocks a Sioux came charging 
down the old road and the infantry stood up in sight as if about 
to leave the shelter. They did not do so, but let the Sioux pass 
through them and after he had passed fired at and killed him. 
Soon after this another man came down the road on foot and be- 
gan to shoot at the infantry and when they rose up to shoot at 
him the other Indians shot at them. This young man was 
kUled. 

White Elk — at that time named Wandering Buffalo Bull — 
was with those fighting the infantry. Soon after the second 
Sioux was killed the cry was given to charge and the Sioux and 
Cheyennes charged and got to the infantry about the same time, 
and for a little while Indians and soldiers were mixed up together 
in hand-to-hand fighting. Just before and in this charge a Sioux 
was killed and another wounded by arrows shot by their own 
people. The one killed was struck in the forehead just over the 
root of the nose, and the arrow-point pierced his brain. The 
arrow was shot from the other side of the ridge and had passed 
through or over the crowd of troops. 

The cavalry, who had followed the decoying party of Indians 
down nearly to the level of the river bottom, when they saw the 
SioiLX charging them from the northeast turned and retreated up 
to the top of a high hill toward the end of the ridge. There 
they halted and waited in line until the infantry were all killed 
at the rocks about a hundred yards north of the line of cavalry. 
Then the cavalry began to fall back, but slowly and in order. 
Some were even on foot leading their horses. 

After the infantrymen had been killed the Indians rushed up 
toward the cavalry, but the ground was slippery with ice and snow 
and in many places the hill was too steep for them to charge up 
it. Still many people crept up toward the place, and Little 
Horse is reported to have approached behind the rocks within 
forty feet of the soldiers, and fought there, yet he was not hurt 
in the fight. While this was going on White Elk was a little be- 
hind, where he could see the Indians shooting at the cavalry with 
arrows, and the arrows flew so thickly above the troops that to 
him they seemed like a lot of grasshoppers flying across each other. 
On the hill an officer was killed and when he fell the troops seemed 
to give way and to begin to fight their way up the ridge. The 



234 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

weather now grew very cold, so that blood running from wounds 
soon froze. After the soldiers had reached the end of the ridge 
they began to let go their horses and the Indians, eager to capture 
the horses, began to lessen their shooting. 

Up to this time Big Nose had not been hurt. Someone called 
out: "There are two good horses left there." Big Nose charged 
up toward the horses, struck them with his whip, thus taking 
possession of them, and then rode back and turned again, but 
here his horse stopped, exhausted. He could not get it to move, 
and here Big Nose was shot off his horse. This was the only 
wound he had and his horse was untouched. 

White Elk went to where his friend lay. He spoke to White 
Elk and said : " Lift my head up the hill and place me where I can 
breathe the fresh air." This was all he said. He breathed for a 
day or two after this. Big Nose was killed on the ridge in the 
first sag northwest of the monument, near some large rocks west 
of the crest of the ridge. His horse stopped as he was crossing 
the ridge and began to back toward the soldiers, who were west 
of where the monument is. While White Elk was helping Big 
Nose the soldiers were shooting at them constantly. 

The cavalry kept moving back to some great rocks, perhaps 
four hundred yards from where the infantry had been killed. On 
the other side of the rocks there was a flat with no cover behind 
which the Indians could approach, and they could not get near 
to the soldiers. The Indians kept calling to one another to keep 
hidden, but to continue to creep up. They did so, and every 
now and then an Indian would show himself and seem to be 
about to charge, and when the soldiers rose to their feet to shoot 
all the Indians would shoot. In this way they killed some of the 
soldiers. They kept calling to each other: "Be ready. Are you 
ready?" And others would call back: "We are ready." They 
were preparing for the charge — a hand-to-hand fight. 

When at last the order was given to charge they rushed in 
among the soldiers and a number of Sioux were killed among the 
soldiers. Here they killed every one. After all were dead a 
dog was seen running away, barking, and someone called out: 
"All are dead but the dog; let him carry the news to the fort," 
but someone else cried out: " No, do not let even a dog get away " ; 
and a young man shot at it with his arrow and killed it. The 



FORT PHIL KEARNY 235 

last of the cavalry was killed just where the monument now 
stands. 

The fight began when the sun was quite high in the heavens 
and ended about noon. Little Horse led the Cheyennes in the 
charge which had been ordered. All watched him and when he 
went forward they followed. Only two Cheyennes were killed. 
The Sioux were laid out side by side and made two long rows, 
perhaps fifty or sixty men. The number of Indians was very 
great. Of Arapahoes and Cheyennes there were a good many 
hundred, and there were three times as many Sioux. White Elk 
believes that in the Fetterman fight there were more men than 
in the Custer fight. Most of the Indians were armed with bows. 
The few who had guns had old smooth-bore flintlocks. Only 
six of the eighty-one white men bore gmishot wounds, and of these 
Colonel Fetterman and Captain Brown are supposed to have 
killed themselves with their own revolvers. 

The so-called Fetterman Massacre caused much excitement 
in the East, and accusations were freely made against the com- 
manding officer, General Carrington, who in turn complained 
that reinforcements and ammunition often asked for from Gen- 
eral P. St. George Cooke had been refused him. As a matter of 
fact, neither reinforcements nor ammunition would have pre- 
vented the disaster which, as already stated, was brought about 
by the recklessness of the officer in command of the force. In 
those days, and the same might be said of many other days, most 
army officers understood little or nothing of the character and 
methods of warfare of the plains Indians. 

The destruction of the force under Fetterman led to a long 
investigation which was ordered by the President, with the re- 
sult that troops were withdrawn from the Powder River country 
in accordance with the treaties then in existence. Fort Phil 
Kearny stood on what is now the ranch of George Geier. The 
fort buildings were later burned by Old Little Wolf. 



XIX 

HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 

1867 

In the spring of 1865, while General Connor was preparing to 
move on the Indians north of the Platte, Colonel Ford was as- 
sembling on the upper Arkansas a very strong force,^ with the 
purpose of attacking the tribes south of that river — Black Kettle's 
Cheyennes, the Southern Arapahoes, the Kiowas, Comanches, and 
Apaches. General Dodge, commanding the Department of the 
Missouri, was eager to see these tribes punished, but Agent Leaven- 
worth declared the Indians were friendly, and after great exer- 
tions he at length succeeded in stopping the march of Ford's 
troops and in arranging a council to be held with all the tribes in 
early f all.^ In October a commission, which included General 
Harney, General Sanborn, William Bent, and Kit Carson, met the 
tribes in council on the Little Arkansas, and here treaties of 
peace were signed and lands were set aside for all of the tribes 
in the region south of the Arkansas. At this time most of the 
Southern Cheyennes were on Powder River, but when they re- 
turned south in late December, 1865, most of them accepted the 
treaty as binding. The Dog Soldiers, however, refused to ac- 
cept the treaty, as it ceded their lands on the Republican and 
Smoky Hill. The Government was anxious to secure the relin- 

^ General Dodge reports Ford's force as seven thousand men, the largest 
body of troops ever assembled in one place to operate against Indians, as far 
as I know. Official Records, vol. 102, p. 335. 

2 Leavenworth and Dodge fought this out all spring and summer. Dodge 
eaid the Indians were hostile, Leavenworth that they were friendly. Except 
part of the Kiowas, they probably were friendly. Leavenworth appealed to 
the Interior Department, and secured Stanton's order stopping Ford's march; 
then Dodge appealed to General Pope and Pope appealed to Stanton, who 
reversed his decision. Dodge at once ordered Ford to move, but Leavenworth 
got hold of Senator DooUttle, and he wired to Stanton and stopped Ford 
again, and so on all summer. Official Records, vol. 102, p. 137. 

236 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 237 

quishment of these lands, as the Kansas Pacific Railroad was to be 
built through that region at once. Two attempts were made to 
induce the Dog Soldier chiefs to agree to give up the Republican 
and Smoky Hill country but without result.^ The mere fact 
that tliis band declined to leave the lands which they had never 
ceded to the Government was taken by many men in Kansas, 
and some army officers, as an indication that the Dog Soldiers 
were planning a war. 

The year 1866 was an unusually quiet one on the Kansas 
frontier, only minor Indian troubles being reported. The Kiowas 
made some raids into Texas and a young Cheyenne killed a Mexi- 
can trader near Fort Zarah during a drunken quarrel.^ This 
year the old quarrel between the Indian agents and the army 
officers was bitter, however, and the frontiersmen and Kansas 
State officials took the side of the army and united in accusations 
against the agents and the Indians under their control. An 
examination of the record seems to show that there was very little 
to complain of. Most of the stories put in circulation were with- 
out any basis of truth.^ 

During the winter of 1866-7 there was so much talk in 
Kansas of raids said to have been made by the Indians that it 
was commonly reported that all Indians tlu-eatened to begin war 
as soon as the grass was up in the spring. Congress was induced 
to appropriate $150,000 for a military expedition into Kansas. 

In his report for 1867 Major Wynkoop, agent for the Chey- 
ennes and Arapahoes, said that he was very nearly discouraged, 
but at last he got matters into working order and issued goods to 

1 Wynkoop attempted to induce the Dog Soldiers to accept the treaty of 
1865, which ceded these lands, in February, 1866, but failed. A second at- 
tempt was made at Fort Ellsworth late in fall, and also failed. 

2 Fox Tail, son of Rock Forehead, killed this Mexican, while drunk. 

' Governor Crawford says the Cheyennes made a raid on the Republican 
in May, 1866, but gives no details. Fox Tail's drunken attack on the Mexican 
was another charge against the tribe. Major Douglas, at Fort Dodge, wa3 
carrying on a quarrel with the agents, and secured an affidavit from Jones, a 
squaw-man, and one Captain Asbury, charging the Kiowas with making 
trouble on the Arkansas, and also some charges against the Cheyennes. This 
was sent to General Hancock. Soon after Tappan, a trader, and Major 
Page went to Douglas and swore to another affidavit, denying all the state- 
ments of Jones and Asbury. This second affidavit Major Douglas does not 
appear to have sent to Hancock. See Stanley, vol. I, chapter on "Hancock 
at Fort Dodge, May, 1867." 



238 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

his tribes, and they were all off hunting quietly. No one was 
making any complaints about their conduct when Hancock's 
expedition arrived and brought on another war. 

Lieutenant-General Sherman was in command of the Military 
Division of the Missouri. It was divided into several depart- 
ments, of which the Department of the Missouri was under Major- 
General Hancock. General Hancock was given command of the 
Kansas Expedition and in April marched from Fort Riley with 
about one thousand four hundred men — cavalry, artillery, some 
infantry, and a pontoon train. So large a force had never before 
been sent against the Indians of this region. 

Hancock moved by Fort Harker and Fort Zarah to Fort 
Lamed, which he reached early in April. Meantime, he had sent 
word to the Indian agents to assemble their tribes to meet him 
in council. Wynkoop reports, September 15, 1867, that Hancock 
in his report to Grant charges him, Wynkoop, with represent- 
ing his Indians as friendly when they were hostile. Wynkoop 
insists that the Indians were friendly and that Hancock drove 
them to war. "His whole course in reference to the Indians 
of my agency was a mistake."^ Leavenworth, the Kiowa and 
Comanche agent, denounces Hancock even more bitterly than 
Wynkoop. 

In his orders issued at the beginning of the march and printed 
in full by Stanley, Hancock says: "It is uncertain whether war 
will be the result of the expedition or not; it will depend upon the 
temper and behavior of the Indians with whom we come in con- 
tact. We are prepared for war and will make it if proper occasion 
presents. We shall have war if the Indians are not properly 
disposed toward us. If they are for peace and no sufficient ground 
is presented for chastisement we are restricted from punishing 
them for past grievances which are recorded against them; these 
matters have been left to the Indian Department for adjustment. 
No insolence will be tolerated from any bands of Indians whom 
we may encounter. We wish to show them that the Government 
is ready and able to punish them if they are hostile, although it 
may not be disposed to invite war,"^ 

1 Report of Secretary of the Interior for 1867-8, p. 310; also Report of Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs for 1867, p. 310. 

2 Stanley, vol. I, p. 10. 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 239 

The tone of this order clearly shows Hancock's Ignorance of 
things relating to these Indians; that he marched with infantry 
and a pontoon train in pursuit of mounted Indians shows how 
little qualified he was for the command of such an expedition. 
His men were all fresh from the battle-fields of the South and new 
to the plains. 

There can be no doubt that the Cheyennes were friendly, but 
at Fort Zarah a rumor was received that five hundred lodges had 
gathered with hostile intentions and Hancock seems to have acted 
on the assumption that this was true and to have distrusted the 
Indians and their agents before he met them. 

Wynkoop quotes a letter addressed to him by Hancock which 
says : " I request that you will inform them, the Indians, in such a 
manner as you may think proper, that I expect shortly to visit 
their neighborhood, and that I will be glad to have an interview 
with their chiefs; and tell them also, if you please, that I go fully 
prepared for peace or war, and that hereafter I will insist on their 
keeping off the main lines of travel, where their presence is cal- 
culated to bring about collisions with the whites. If you prevail 
upon the Indians of your agency to abandon their habit of infest- 
ing the country travelled by our over-land routes, threatening, 
robbing, and intimidating travelers, we will defer that matter to 
you. If not, I would be pleased by your presence with me when 
I visit the locality of your tribes, to show that the officers of the 
government are acting in harmony." 

In compliance with this request Wynkoop called together the 
principal chiefs of the Dog Soldiers and of the Cheyennes at 
Fort Larned, to have a talk with Hancock. The chiefs answered 
the call at once, coming thirty-five miles to the post, although the 
snow was deep and their horses were miserably thin and scarcely 
able to travel. Hancock talked with these chiefs in his camp at 
night, an unexampled proceeding, for friendly councils with In- 
dians are always held during the day. This talk at night made 
the Indians suspicious and Hancock's statement that he intended 
to visit the village made them more so. Hancock gave Wyn- 
koop no opportunity to speak to the Indians, although in his 
letter the general had stated that he would defer the whole matter 
to the agent so long as the Indians kept off the road. Stanley^ 

1 Stanley, vol. I, pp. 29, 30. 



240 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and Custer^ give accounts of the council and Stanley gives Han- 
cock's speech. Hancock spoke to these Cheyennes about white 
prisoners which he implied they had taken, but as a matter of 
fact these prisoners were taken in Texas and by the Kiowas. 
The Cheyennes had nothing to do with them and very likely 
knew nothing about them. Nevertheless Hancock held them 
responsible. Wynkoop^ in his report says that he protested 
against the march to the Cheyenne village but Hancock insisted. 

It was understood that the village was on Pawnee Fork, about 
thirty-five miles west of Fort Larned. Really it was about ten 
miles farther off. Hancock, leaving the Santa Fe Road, w^hich 
his expedition had been sent to keep open, started directly away 
from the road to march to this village. He was thus uninten- 
tionally doing everything that he could to stir up a war. He took 
with him his whole body of troops and moved up the Pawnee 
Fork, the chiefs riding with the column in all friendliness, but 
very much worried as to what effect the appearance of the troops 
might have on their people. It may be imagined that after their 
experience in November, 1864, the Cheyennes were very much 
afraid of the approach to their village of a large body of troops 
and it is not strange that a considerable proportion of the Indians 
in this camp imagined that a second Sand Creek massacre was 
impending.^ 

The troops marched twenty or twenty-five miles from the 
fort and then encamped, the chiefs remaining with the soldiers. 
Hancock now sent word to the village asking more chiefs to visit 
him, naming among them Roman Nose, whom he in common 
with many other people insisted on considering the principal 
chief, although he was not a chief at all. The Indians did not 
arrive at the time set next morning, because their camp was ten 
miles farther away than Hancock had supposed and thus not 
enough time had been allowed them for reaching Hancock. 
Hancock now declared that he believed the Indians felt guilty 
and would not come, so he broke camp and ordered an advance.* 

The column marched six miles and then met about three 

^ Custer's My Life on the Plains, p. 24. 

2 Report of the Secretary of the Interior, p. 311. 

*Ibid., p. 311. 

* Ibid., p. 312. 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 241 

hundred Indians who were on their way to meet Hancock at his 
camp in response to his summons. Hancock at once deployed 
his men in Hne of battle, and Wynkoop says they had all the 
appearance of troops going into action, the cavalry coming into 
Ime at a gallop with sabres drawn. 

Wynkoop asked permission to ride forward and reassure the 
Indians, and General Hancock told him he might go. Wynkoop 
rode forward to the Indian line and talked with Roman Nose 
and some of the chiefs and took them forward, and Hancock 
and others met them midway. Custer and Stanley do not men- 
tion that Wynkoop rode forward alone but say that the general 
and other officers rode forward, seeming to imply that to ride 
out and meet such hostile Indians was an evidence of courage. 
Wynkoop says that Hancock told the chiefs that it was too windy 
to talk there; that he would talk at his camp that night. Bent 
states that Roman Nose had just told Bull Bear that he intended 
to kill Hancock at the head of his troops, but Bull Bear begged 
him not to do this as it would endanger the women and children. 
The Indians seemed to have been prepared for any event, for they 
had their bows strung and spare arrows in their hands. They 
had very few guns. A magazine article printed in 1868 describes 
Roman Nose as heavily armed, with Spencer carbine, four heavy 
revolvers in his belt, while carrying in his left hand a bow and a 
number of arrows. Obviously, if Roman Nose was so well pro- 
vided with firearms as said, he had no ammunition for them, or 
else he would have carried a firearm in his hands. Guerrier 
subsequently told George Bent that Roman Nose told him that 
he intended to kill General Hancock. Guerrier says that Roman 
Nose sat on his horse near the general and looked him straight 
in the eyes for a long time. Hancock asked sharply if the Indians 
wished war and Roman Nose replied sarcastically that if they had 
wanted war they would not have been likely to come out in the 
open and face such a force or have come so close to the big guns. 
Hancock then asked why Roman Nose had not come to the coun- 
cil and Roman Nose explained that his horses were too weak to 
travel, while everyone who came to him told a different story 
about Hancock's intentions. 

When the troops had formed in line of battle a considerable 
number of Indians, who had been following the mounted men on 



242 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

foot, ran away, and during this talk a number of Indians slipped 
off.^ As soon as the principal men returned to the line of Indians 
they wheeled and the Indians rode off rapidly toward their vil- 
lages, while the troops resumed their march. Bull Bear again 
asked Hancock, through Guerrier, not to camp near the village 
lest the women and children, already frightened, should run away. 
Hancock replied that he intended to camp close to the village. 
Davis in the article^ already referred to says that Hancock's 
purpose was to camp at some distance from the village, but be- 
cause the Indians had burned the grass to keep him away there 
was no grazing for the horses except near their own camp. This 
burning of the prairie is not mentioned in other accounts. Soon 
after the troops had made camp some of the chiefs came in and 
reported that the women and children had run away. The sub- 
stance of the talk is no doubt given in Guerrier's statement to be 
quoted later. Hancock asked wh}^ they -had gone. Roman 
Nose said that they were frightened, and asked Hancock if he 
had not heard of Sand Creek, when the troops had come to the 
Indian village under appearances very similar to those of that 
day. Hancock declared that he regarded the flight of the women 
and children an act of treachery and demanded that they be 
brought back. According to Wynkoop, three chiefs said they 
would go and try to persuade them to come back; Guerrier says 
two chiefs offered to go. Hancock loaned them horses, their 
own being too weak to travel. Wynkoop says they returned 
about midnight reporting the women and children too far scattered 
over the prairie to be brought back. That the horses were re- 
turned is shown by the testimony of Wynkoop^ and by that of 
Guerrier, who led the horses back to the camp and reported to 
General Hancock. Nevertheless it was claimed that the chiefs 
did not come back; did not return the horses, and that they took 
the horses and went on this trip without any intention of return- 
ing, acting treacherously throughout.^ 

1 Report of Secretary of Interior, pp. 311, 312; see also Stanley, p. 37, and 
Custer's account in My Life on the Plains. 

2 "A Summer on the Plains," by T. R. Davis, Harper's Magazine for 1868, 
vol. 36. 

' Report of Secretary of the Interior, p. 312. 

* Custer, however, in his letters to his wife, makes no such charge. In a 
letter dated Pawnee Fork, April 15, 20 minutes to 3 A. m. (evidently written 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 243 

About the time the command left Fort Lamed, Edmond 
Guerrier was engaged by Hancock as interpreter. In 1908 he 
gave me his recollection of the approach to the Cheyenne village, 
saying: 

Shortly after I was engaged as interpreter we had a visit from Bull Bear, 
the chief, and Tall Bull and White Horse, chiefs of the Dog Soldiers. They 
asked Gen. Hancock not to come near their camp. They feared that he had 
a purpose to harm them and thought that if his visit was a peaceful one he 
would not have brought such a great body of soldiers with him. That night 
Gen. Hancock said that he was going to where their village was, and he 
started for it. It took some time to get there, for they marched slowly 
and the troops had pontoon bridges which they put down over Pawnee 
Fork. 

Some time before we got near the village some of the Cheyennes came 
out to meet us, Roman Nose, Tall Bull, White Horse, and Bidl Bear. They 
talked and again asked Gen. Hancock not to come up near to the village. 
They said: "Because of what you told us last night, we have not been able 
to hold our women and children: they are all frightened and have run away 
and they will not come back: they fear the soldiers." 

General Hancock said: "You must get them back, and I expect you to 
do so." 

He marched up and camped quite close to the village. The Indians had 
told him that it would be impossible for them to overtake those who had run 
away, because it was early in the spring and all their horses were thin and 
weak and unable to travel. 

Then General Hancock offered to give them a couple of horses that they 
could use in sending out runners, and he did so. 

After camp had been made, in the evening he sent for me and said: 
"Geary, are you afraid to go up to the camp there and talk to these Indians 
and to stay there all night?" I said that I was not and expressed my will- 
ingness to go, and then Gen. Hancock said: "If those Indians run away I 
shall hold you responsible." Then I said I did not want to go on those terms; 
that I could not keep the Indians from running away, but could only report 
that they had run away. 

"Well," said Gen. Hancock, "go up there anyway and if they run away 
come and let me know." 

I went up to the camp and talked with the principal men. They were 
frightened and yet for some time said nothing definite as to what they in- 

the night the Indians ran away, but misdated), he tells how a half-breed guide 
notified Hancock, about sunset, that the Indians were saddling up, and how 
he, Custer, surrounded the camp at midnight, but found the Indians gone. 
He says: "They feared us; feared another massacre like Chivington's. . . . 
I am to pursue them. ... I do not anticipate war, or even difficulty, as the 
Indians are frightened to death, and only ran away from fear." — Quoted from 
Tenting on the Plains, pp. 560-1, by Mrs. E. B. Custer, New York, 1887. 



244 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

tended to do. Then they left me in the lodge with the young men and went 
out and consulted among themselves and then came back and told me that 
they had decided not to stay, but to run away with their women and chil- 
dren. They returned to me the two horses that had been given them to use 
in sending messengers to the women and children and I mounted my own 
horse and leading the two others returned to camp and reported to Gen. 
Hancock that the Indians had decided to run away. 

When Hancock learned that the Indians had gone or were 
going he ordered the cavalry to surround the camp. When it 
was captured no one was found in it except an old Sioux with a 
broken leg, his wife, and a little girl. Various tales are told about 
the treatment of this child, who was feeble-minded.^ 

Wynkoop says that General Hancock declared that same night 
that he would burn the village. Hancock, however, claims that 
he did not reach this decision until after he had learned from 
Custer that the Indians had begun raiding on the Smoky Hill 
River. Custer's report, however, was not received until April 
16 at the very earliest and Wynkoop^ made a written protest 
against the burning of the village on April 13. Stanley^ said 
that Hancock had determined to burn the village April 14. 

Guerrier was sent to guide Custer in following the Indians. 
He says that the trail was hard to follow because in order to travel 
faster the Indians had discarded their travois and packed their 
property on their horses' backs, and then soon after leaving the 
village had scattered out. However, they were followed to the 
Smoky Hill River, where it was found that they had attacked a 
stage station — Fossil Station — where they killed two men on the 
night of the 14th-15th. Custer sent two troops of cavalry after 
the small party, thought to be the Sioux, who made this raid, and 
with three troops followed the main body of Indians toward 
Beaver Creek, but failed to overtake them. 

Hancock had threatened to chastise these Indians most severely 
if they made any trouble, but having now driven them to hos- 
tilities he found it impossible to strike them at all, as they moved 
much more rapidly than his troops. The only Indians killed were 
some friendly Cheyennes of Black Kettle's camp, six of whom 

» Stanley, vol. I, pp. 39, 40. 
- * Report of Secretary of Interior, 1867-8, p. 313. 
' Stanley, vol. I, p. 40. 



( 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 245 

had gone up to visit the Dog Soldiers just before Hancock came 
to the camp. They had gone on foot to the Dog Soldiers' village 
from the south. Their names were: One Bear,'' Burnt All Over,^ 
Wolf in the Middle,^ Plenty of Horses,* Pawnee Man/ and Eagle's 
Nest.« 

When General Hancock came and made camp close to the 
village and the Indians got frightened and ran away, scattering 
and leaving their lodges standing, these young men set out to 
return south to their camp. As they were starting One Bear 
said to them: "Well, now, come on; let us travel fast. I know 
where there is a stage station on the Arkansas; we will go back 
there as quickly as we can and perhaps there we may be able to 
take some horses and we shall have something to ride home." 
This ranch was at the Cimarron Crossing, above Fort Larned. 

They travelled fast all through the night and at last, just 
about daylight, they reached the point of a hill, and looking over 
it could see the stage station. One Bear said to the others: 
" Now, friends, you stay here and I will go ahead and take a look, 
and see if any loose animals are wandering around near the 
station." 

He went off and presently came back and said to the others: 
"There are soldiers there and a number of them are coming this 
way." Just then they all heard a bugle-call. 

Plenty of Horses said to the others : " Well, what are we going 
to do? Here is a level prairie and these soldiers are coming." 

"Well," said Burnt All Over, "there is a little hollow at the 
head of a ravine that we passed; let us go back there and hide." 

They began to drop the things that they were carrying and 
started back, but just as they started they saw coming over the 
hill from the other way another party of soldiers. They were 
to be attacked on both sides.'^ 

The Cheyennes stopped and stood there for a moment or two, 
and the soldiers stopped, too, and sat on their horses and looked 
at them. 

* Nahk'-nii-ka, One Bear. 

2 Mahlm-hka-heh", Burnt All Over. 
' Ho-ni'-os-tso-Inst, WoK in the Middle. 

* Mo-In'-6-hilm-ka'-Ist-kwIst, Plenty of Horses. 

» On'-6-hIt, Pawnee Man. « NIt-sIv'-hO-Itsts, Eagle's Nest. 

» Stanley, vol. I, p. 50. 



WESTERN KANSAS IN 1867. 

At this timethe Kansas Pacific R. R. was being built up the Smoky Hill Road to Denver. 
The old Smoky Hill stage line ran from the end of track. 

Distances: 

Leavenworth to Fort Riley, 116 miles. 
Junction City, 119 miles. 
Chapman's Creek, 131 miles. 
Abilene, 143 miles. 
Solomon River, 153 miles. 
Salina, 166 miles, end of track, April, 1867. 
Spring Creek, 181 miles. 
Ellsworth, 195 miles. 
Bufifalo Creek, 205 miles. 
Wilson's Creek, 214 miles. 
Bimker Hill, 222 miles. 
Fossil Creek, 230 mUes. 
Walker's Creek, 240 miles. 

Hays City, about 256 miles, end of track, fall, 1867. 
Big Creek, 252 miles. 
Lookout, 261 miles. 
Stormy Hollow, 273 miles. 
White Rock, 284 miles. 
Downer's Creek, 294 miles. 
Castle Rock, 305 miles. 
Grinnell Springs, 313 miles. 
Chalk Blufl", 316 miles. 
Carlysle HaU, 334 miles. 
Monument, 344 miles. 
Smoky Hill Springs, 356 miles. 
Russell Springs, 366 miles. 
Henshaw Springs, 380 miles. 
Pond Creek, 391 miles. 
Goose Creek, 402 miles. 
Big Timbers, 412 miles. 

The next station, Cheyenne Wells, is in Colorado. The road 
struck off thence to Sand Creek and northwest to Denver. 



248 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

One Bear called out: "Let us make for the river, but strike it 
above the stage station, going around the soldiers on their right 
hand." 

The soldiers followed them, but the Cheyennes got first to the 
river and crossed to a little island, and there got in the brush 
and began to throw up breastworks. When the soldiers reached 
the river bank they got off and tied their horses and started to 
attack them on foot. Just before the Indians were going into 
the river they passed through some high rushes that grew on the 
edge of the water, and here Pawnee Man and Wolf in the Middle 
turned off to one side, and lay down in the high rushes, while 
the other four went on over to the island. 

Some of the soldiers tied their horses right close to where 
these two men were hiding, and Pawnee Man said to Wolf in the 
Middle: "Now, let us get up and take a couple of these horses 
and get away. The soldiers are not thinking of us now and we 
can get a good start"; but Wolf in the Middle said: "No, let us 
crav/1 farther down the stream and still hide. We may choose 
poor horses and they will catch us at once," so they crept farther 
down the stream and remained hidden in the grass until night. 

Meantime the soldiers on the north side of the island began 
to shoot at the men who were hidden there, and after they had 
been doing this for some time One Bear made up his mind that 
the place was too dangerous, and he said to the others: "Let us 
get away from here." The four got up out of their hiding-places 
and started to run across the river. One Bear had crossed and 
was just climbing up the bank when a ball struck and killed him. 
As soon as he fell Plenty of Horses, who was close to him, ran back 
to One Bear and got his quiver so that he might have more ar- 
rows. Burnt All Over stopped, and while Plenty of Horses was 
taking the quiver was shot in the shoulder. Meantime Eagle's 
Nest had started off over the prairie, making for the sand hills 
a mile and a half away. The soldiers were coming and followed 
Eagle's Nest. 

Burnt All Over and Plenty of Horses turned up the creek and, 
running in the valley, were not followed. The soldiers pursued 
Eagle's Nest and did not overtake him until he had reached the 
sand hills, where they killed him. Burnt All Over and Plenty of 
Horses went up into the sand hills, and just as they disappeared 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 249 

the soldiers took a shot at them. Among the sand hills they found 
a sand blowout and, creeping in there, hid until night. 

These two young men, One Bear and Eagle's Nest, were the 
only Indians killed by Hancock's one thousand four hundred men 
during the spring campaign. Custer's pursuit was fruitless and 
he returned with his regiment to Fort Hays and went into camp. 
Hancock, after burning the Dog Soldier and Sioux village on 
Pawnee Fork, marched to Fort Dodge, ^ on the Arkansas and held 
talks with the Kiowas and Arapahoes, who had remained quiet 
and taken no part in the war. On hearing of the trouble on 
Pawnee Fork, the two tribes had fled from the Arkansas, but the 
chiefs came in to talk with Hancock. Hancock now marched to 
Fort Hays, where he found Custer in camp, and on May 9 he left 
for Fort Leavenworth and his campaign was over, but the trouble 
which Hancock had stirred up was not over. In May and June 
the Indians, whose village had been destroyed, repeatedly raided 
the Platte road.^ 

At this time the Union Pacific Railroad had been constructed 
as far as North Platte at the forks of the Platte, and the Kansas 
Pacific up the Smoky Hill as far as Fort Harker. The old stage 
line ran from the end of the track at Fort Harker west to Denver. 
Along this road the Indians were very troublesome, burning 
stations and attacking coaches, from June to September.^ 

1 Fort Dodge, established 1865, above Fort Lamed and below Cimarron 
Crossing. 

2 Stanley, pp. 110-3; also p. 119. 

' June, 1867. Governor Crawford, in his Kansas in the Sixties, gives ac- 
counts of many raids on the Smoky Hill line in June, July, August, and 
September, pp. 255 et seq. These attacks were mostly on the railroad build- 
ers operating west of Fort Harker, and on the stage line that ran from Fort 
Harker west. 

June 24, J. D. Perry, President of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, writes to 
Crawford that the Indians have been making raids and have stampeded one 
thousand laborers who had come in to Fort Harker, and refuse to go out and 
work because of danger from Indian attacks — p. 255. Same day report from 
Bunker Hill, two more men killed. 

June 27, railroad engineer-camp attacked near Fort Harker, one man 
killed, etc. An attack was made almost every day, a man or two killed, and 
some stock run off in each attack. 

When the Indians drove all the laborers off the railroad line west of Harker, 
June 24, Governor Crawford began to urge Sheridan and Sherman to permit 
him to recruit a regiment of Kansas volunteers "to protect the railroad 
workmen." Sherman at length authorized this on July 1, and the Nineteenth 



250 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

To punish these raiders, General Custer was sent into the field 
with the Seventh Cavalry to try to strike the villages of the 
Indians. He moved from Fort Hays on the Smoky Hill in May, 
and rode over much of the country north of this, as far as the 
Platte, but found no Indians. His command camped at Jack 
Morrow's old ranch, near Fort McPherson, on the Platte. This 
post had been built on the site of old Fort Cottonwood, at 
Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska, about midway between Fort 
Kearny and Julesburg. Here the Sioux chief Pawnee Killer and 
other chiefs came in and had a talk with Custer. They declared 
themselves friendly, were given some supplies, and went away. 
General Sherman reached the camp and told Custer that he 
doubted these peaceful intentions, ordering him to go after them 
and bring them in, but they were already beyond his reach. 

After supplying his command, Custer set out again, marching 
southward from the Platte toward the Republican. The country 
was rough and the hills steep. On June 24 the command was 
attacked by Indians who endeavored to drive off the animals.^ 
They were discovered in time, and secured nothing except the 
carbine and ammunition of a sentry. Custer's own account is 
distorted and exaggerated. He says several Indians were shot. 
After this the main body of the Indians drew oflF to a hill about a 
mile from camp, where they formed a line and, signalling with 
mirrors, were soon joined by other parties of Indians, who seemed 
to come from every direction. One of Custer's scouts, named 
Gay, was ordered to ride out toward the Indians and try to in- 
duce them to come in. He first rode toward them in a zigzag 
course, intimating friendship, and then called them to him by 
riding in a circle. A few Indians rode toward Gay and told him 
that they would talk if the white chief would bring with him only 
a few of his officers. Gay replied that in that case only as many 

Kansas Cavalry was raised and sent out to Fort Harker. But instead of 
protecting the line, the troops at once set out to chase Indians. Two companies 
of this regiment found a trail and followed it toward the Republican. They 
met one troop of the Tenth U. S. negro cavalry and went on, but on August 
21 they were surprised by Indians near the Republican. Next day the Indians 
attacked in force, killing three men, whose bodies fell into the Indians' hands, 
and wounding thirty-five others. The troops fell back hastily toward Fort 
Harker. Crawford, p. 261. 

1 Custer's My Life on the Plains, p. 57. 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 251 

Indians should come as there were white men who came toward 
them. Returning to the command, he reported to Custer that 
Pawnee Killer and some other Sioux chiefs were anxious to talk. 
A small number of officers went out to meet the Indians, who 
were twice as many as they were, and besides that small bodies 
of Indians were constantly approaching nearer and nearer to the 
place of conference. The talk amounted to nothing; the Indians 
asked for food and ammunition, while General Custer, after 
trying to learn from Pawnee Killer something about the situation 
of his village, told the Sioux chief that he purposed to follow him. 
He returned to camp and moved off after the Indians, but without 
success. A little later a small party of the Indians showed 
themselves near the command, and Captain L. Hamilton was 
ordered to take twenty men and follow them. He pursued them 
for eight or ten miles, when the small band of Indians suddenly 
increased to several hundred, and in a short time surrounded 
Hamilton's little party, which, however, kept off the Indians 
with the loss of only one horse. 

The wagon-train of the command was attacked and followed 
for fifteen miles, the wagons moving steadily along during the 
fight. These all appeared to be Sioux. The same day that the 
wagons were attacked, there was a fight at Fort Wallace between 
the Indians and a company of the Seventh Cavalry under Captain 
Barnit. Here the Indians imitated the white man's mode of 
fighting, abandoning the usual custom of riding in a circle, but 
forming a line and charging after the manner of a squadron of 
cavalry. This made the fighting desperate, for it was largely at 
very close quarters. Some of the bravest and most efficient non- 
commissioned officers of the Seventh Cavalry were killed. When 
an Indian was shot and fell from his horse two companions 
would ride up to him, pick up the body, and carry it to a place of 
safety. The Indians gave wonderful exhibitions of riding on this 
occasion. It is a high honor for a young man to expose himself 
by dashing into the battle and assisting in carrying off a dead or 
wounded tribesman. This was one of the hard fights of the year. 

While Custer was on the Republican, Lieutenant Kidder with 
ten men of the Second Cavalry was sent by General Sheridan 
from Fort Sedgwick on the Platte with despatches to Custer. 
Red Bead, a Sioux from Powder River, guided the party. Kidder 



252 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

never reached Custer, but when Custer moved south toward Fort 
Wallace a scout struck a trail running along the high divide 
near Beaver Creek. The tracks showed cavalry horses moving 
at a walk. Suddenly the trail turned off the divide, but tracks 
showed the horses now moving at a gallop. The scouts followed 
the trail for about a mile from the ridge, and in a little hollow near 
the stream found the bodies of Lieutenant Kidder, Red Bead, 
and ten soldiers dead, stripped and shot full of arrows. No one 
ever knew just how these men came to their death, as the Indians 
have always been afraid to tell the story. It has often been 
written and speculated about, but recently Good Bear, a Dog 
Soldier, who took part in the fight, told the story to George Bent. 
He said that in June of that year he and a few other Dog Soldiers 
were camped with the Brule Sioux hunting buffalo on Beaver 
Creek, a tributary of the Republican. The lodges of the Dog 
Soldiers were together, and at a little distance from the Sioux 
camp. One day some Sioux, who had been out after buffalo, came 
rushing by the Dog Soldiers' camp calling out that soldiers with 
pack-mules were coming toward the creek, and would be there in a 
few minutes. The hunters rode on to the Sioux camp and made 
the same report, and all the warriors began to prepare for a fight. 
The Cheyennes, who happened to have their ponies tied up 
close by their lodges, were the first to get mounted, and at once 
rode off in search of the soldiers, whom they presently discovered 
in a little hollow near the stream, dismounted and ready for a 
fight. One of the Dog Soldiers, named Tobacco,^ began riding 
around the soldiers and shooting, and the others did the same. 
Presently the Sioux rode up and jumped off their horses, prefer- 
ring to fight on foot. They began to crawl through the grass on 
Kidder's party, while the Dog Soldiers kept circling about them 
and firing as they rode. Good Bear^ had his horse shot under 
him, and Tobacco, the Cheyenne leader, also had his pony killed. 
All through the fight Red Bead, the Sioux who was with Kidder, 
kept calling to the attacking party of Sioux to let him out, but 
the Sioux would not listen to him, and kept creeping in closer 
and closer, until at last all the soldiers were killed. In this fight 
the Sioux lost two men, one of them Yellow Horse, who had been 
made a chief just before the engagement. 

* Tsl-nlm'-o, Tobacco. ^ Nahk'o-wu-It-a, Good Bear. 



HANCOCK CAMPAIGN 253 

There were only twelve Cheyennes in the fight, of whom were 
Tobacco, Big Head, and Howling Wolf. The Sioux were under 
Pawnee Killer, who only a few days before had had a peace talk 
with Custer on the Republican, and Bear Making Trouble. 

This covers the principal fighting in 1867, except the wreck 
of the railroad train. General Hancock's command, while he 
was in the field and later, in four months of active campaigning 
had killed four Indians. Two of these were Cheyennes, at the 
Cimarron Crossing, as already explained, and two Sioux in the 
Kidder Fight. 



XX 

MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 

1867 

In the late summer of 1867, some Cheyennes succeeded in 
what was perhaps the only attempt to disable a railroad ever 
made by Indians. General Custer's summer campaign on the 
Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers had proved futile. The In- 
dians continued to raid unchecked in Kansas and Nebraska, and 
on the South Platte, in Colorado. In the early days of August a 
camp of Cheyenne Indians under Turkey Leg,^ came to the Union 
Pacific Railroad, near Plum Creek, and by interfering with the 
rails threw a hand-car off the track, and subsequently ditched a 
freight train. A number of men were killed, and one, William 
Thompson, was scalped alive, recovered, and as recently as 1912 
was still living, in England. 

The printed accounts state that the Indians took out a culvert 
and broke the track in that way, but the narrative of Porcupine, 
then a young man in the Cheyenne camp, gives the facts about it. 

Hancock and Custer, by camping close to the Cheyenne village 
thirty or forty miles west from Fort Lamed, on Pawnee Fork, in 
Kansas, had so frightened the Indians that they all ran away. 
They had travelled north or northwest and very likely had crossed 
the North Platte west of Ogallala, in what is now Nebraska. 

Custer, sent in pursuit of the Indians — to bring them back — 
expected soon to overtake them, but, of course, did not do so. He 
followed them at a good rate, but as he more nearly approached 
them the Indians, pursuing their usual tactics, separated into 
little groups, and what had been a broad plain trail soon became 
very diflBcult to follow. Custer says^ that the trails led north, 

^ Turkey Leg was a Northern Cheyenne whose camp was part of the time 
north of the Platte and part of the time on the Republican River. The actual 
leader of the party that ditched the train was Spotted Wolf. 

2 My Life on the Plains, p. 36. 

254 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 255 

and would have crossed the heads of the Smoky Hill and Repub- 
lican Rivers. This would have brought them to the Platte River 
west of the forks, so that they would not have seen the track of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, which was then built west only as 
far as North Platte, Nebraska. 

Porcupine's description of the country shows that the Indians 
approached the railroad from the north. 

The story of the train wreck is told at length by Stanley.^ 
The men he interviewed were perhaps not in a position to make 
very careful observations of what happened at the time, and we 
may prefer the story told by Porcupine. Stanley, however, 
quotes the story of Thompson, who was one of five men who 
started up the track on a hand-car to repair telegraph lines. When 
the hand-car was thrown from the track by the obstruction, the 
men ran. Thompson was shot through the arm, knocked down 
and partially stunned by an Indian, who jumped from his horse, 
scalped him, and remounted to ride off. Thompson saw the scalp 
slip from the Indian's belt and regained it, and later set out for 
Omaha, carrying his scalp in a pail of water, in the hope that it 
might be reattached to his head. He was treated by Doctor R. 
C. Moore, of Omaha. The operation was not successful, and 
Thompson finally went to England, and later sent back to Doctor 
Moore the scalp, which had been tanned. The scalp, preserved 
in alcohol, is now in the Omaha Public Library Museum. 

Porcupine's story is the only one ever told by an eye-witness 
of the train wreck. We may imagine that the plundering of the 
train, and the acquiring of what to the Indians must have seemed 
an inexhaustible supply of extraordinary and valuable plunder 
made a wild scene. It is related that young men tied to their 
ponies' tails the ends of bolts of calico and muslin, and amused 
themselves by careering over the prairie with long streamers 
waving behind them, each boy trying to ride over, tread upon, 
and so tear off the adornment of one of his fellows. 

After plundering the train, the Cheyennes went away to their 
camp, but almost at once came back, just in time to meet the 
Pawnee scouts who had come down to the railroad to look for 
them. 

As soon as the news of the occurrence reached Omaha, Major 

' Stanley, Early Travels and Adventures, vol. I, p. 154. 



256 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

North, who was in command of four companies of Pawnee scouts 
then used in patrol duty along the line of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, was telegraphed to for help. He was at the end of track, 
and was asked to bring down a company of his Pawnees to follow 
the Indians who had wrecked the train. The nearest company 
that he could spare was stationed twelve miles west of the end of 
track, but he telegraphed for cars to be in readiness at the end of 
track, and with Captain James Murie went to Plum Creek and 
thence to the scene of the train wreck. 

The Cheyennes were just returning for another load of plunder, 
and Murie attacked and chased them. A running fight ensued, 
during which a young girl, Manah' — Island Woman — a lad, her 
brother, and two other women, one named Ho wa heh', meaning 
Nothing, and the other named Wun hai', meaning Burns, were 
captured. From this event the boy received the name he bears 
to-day — Pawnee. Island Woman escaped, and is still living. An 
old man was killed. It is said that thirty head of horses w^ere 
captured. If so, these were old, slow horses. 

Porcupine's account, with some interpolations, is as follows: 

We had had a fight with the soldiers on (near) Ash Creek,^ which flows 
into the Arkansas. There were Sioux and Cheyennes in the fight, and the 
troops had defeated us and taken everything that we had, and had made us 
poor. We were feehng angry. 

Not long after that we saw the first train of cars that any of us had seen. 
We looked at it from a high ridge. Far off it was very small, but it kept 
coming and growing larger all the time, puffing out smoke and steam, and as 
it came on we said to each other that it looked like a white man's pipe when 
he was smoking. 

The soldiers had beaten us in the fight and we thought that perhaps it 
was because of the way in which they rode and carried themselves, and we 
determined that we would try to imitate the soldiers, so we rode two by two 
in double file. One of the men had a bugle and from time to time he blew it 
in imitation of the bugle-call of the troops. 

After we had seen this train and watched it come near us and grow large 
and pass by and then disappear in the distance, we went down from the ridge 
where we had been, to look at the ground where the train had passed, to see 
what sort of trail it made. When we came near to the track we could see 

^ So Porcupine, but perhaps he means near Ash Creek. All the printed 
accounts agree that the village was on the Pawnee Fork, which is just south 
of Walnut Creek, which the Cheyennes call Ash Creek, Moto she', where 
ash trees grow thick. 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 257 

white people going up and down by it, riding in light wagons. We were 
riding two by two and when we had come near to the track the man with the 
bugle sounded it, and the Indians spread out and formed a line and for a little 
way marched with extended front, and then again formed by twos. The 
white people paid no attention to us. Perhaps they thought that we were 
soldiers. 

We crossed the track, looking carefully at it as we passed, and then went 
on and crossed the river. 

Not long after this, as we talked of our troubles, we said among ourselves: 
"Now the white people have taken all we had and have made us poor and we 
ought to do something. In these big wagons that go on this metal road, there 
must be things that are valuable — perhaps clothing. If we could throw these 
wagons off the iron they run on and break them open, we should find out 
what was in them and could take whatever might be useful to us." 

Red Wolf and I tried to do this. We got a big stick, and just before sun- 
dowa one day tied it to the rails and sat down to watch and see what would 
happen. Close by the track we built a big fire. Quite a long time after it 
got dark we heard a rumbling sound, at first very faint, but constantly growing 
louder. We said to each other: "It is coming." Presently the sound grew 
loud, and through the darkness we could see a small thing coming with some- 
thing on it that moved up and down. 

It was a hand-car with two men working it. 

When the men on the car saw the fire and the Indians, they worked 
harder so as to run by them quickly, but when the car struck the stick it 
jumped high into the air. The men on it got up from where they had fallen 
and ran away, but were soon overtaken and killed. 

On the hand-car were two guns, and in handling them the Indians pulled 
something and the guns broke in two in the middle and the barrels fell down. 
The Indians said: "It is a pity that these are broken; if they had not been, we 
should have had two good guns." 

Thesp were Spencer carbines, the first breech-loaders these 
Cheyennes had seen. 

After their success in ditching the hand-car they thought 
they would do more. They took levers, and after pulling out the 
spikes at the end of a rail, they bent the rail up a foot or two in 
the air. The next train came from the side of the bent-up rail. 
Porcupine said that the weight of the train ought to have bent 
back the rail in place; but in raising it they must have given it a 
sidewise twist, so that when the rail came down on the ties, the 
ends of the two rails did not meet, and the tram jumped the track. 



258 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Looking east over the long level plain, we saw a small light close to the 
horizon, and some one said: "The morning star is rising." "No," said an- 
other, "that is one of those things that we have seen." "No," said a third 
man, "the first one has gone out and another one is rising." 

It was learned afterward that they had seen the headHghts 
of two trains that were coming, one following behind the other. 

They sent men on the best horses they had eastward along the track to 
find out what these lights were and to come and report, telling them also to 
yell and shoot, in the hope that they might frighten it. The men went, and 
as soon as they saw that the first light was on a train, they started to return, 
riding as hard as they could, but before they had reached the place the train 
overtook and passed them. Some of them fired at the train and one tried to 
throw a rope over the engine, but when they got close, the horses were fright- 
ened and ran away. When they fired, the train made a loud noise — puffing — 
and threw up sparks into the air, going faster and faster, until it reached the 
break, and the locomotive jumped into the air and the cars all came together. 

After the train was wrecked, a man with a lantern was seen coming running 
along the track, swearing in a loud tone of voice. He was the only one on the 
train left alive. They killed him. The other train stopped somewhere far off 
and whistled. Four or five men came walking along the track toward the 
wrecked train. The Cheyennes did not attack them. The second train then 
backed away. 

Next morning they plundered and burned the WTccked train and scattered 
the contents of the cars all over the prairie. They tied bolts of calico to their 
horses' tails, and galloped about and had much amusement. 

As they were going away wdth their plunder, another train came up from 
the west and many soldiers got off it, but they did not attack the Cheyennes. 
Later some of the Cheyennes went back for more plunder and were attacked 
by the Pawnees and driven away. An old man was killed and a woman and 
a boy, Pawnee, and a girl. Island Woman, were captured. 

After Miirie and his Pawnees had chased the Indians pretty 
well out of the country, they returned to Plum Creek, where they 
remained in camp for a couple of months. At the end of this 
time Turkey Leg sent a runner to North Platte, saying that the 
little boy who had been captured was his nephew, and that for 
the boy and the young women in the hands of the Pawnees 
Turkey Leg would exchange six white prisoners that he had. 
The Pawnees were consulted, and agreed that this should be 
done. 

The message to Major North appears to have come through 
some of the Indians who had already begun to gather at North 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 259 

Platte, for a council to be held between the Sioux and Cheyennes, 
and the members of the peace commission, who later made the 
treaty of Medicine Lodge. 

It was agreed between Major North and Turkey Leg that the 
white prisoners should be brought in to North Platte, and that on 
the same day the two Cheyenne prisoners should be exchanged — 
the exchange to be made in the railroad eating-house. This 
was done. The white prisoners thus rescued were three young 
girls, two of them nineteen and one seventeen years old, a pair 
of twin boys six years of age, and a baby. 

At the council there were present Spotted Tail of the B rules, 
Man Afraid of His Horses, Man that Walks Under the Ground, 
Pawnee Killer, Standing Elk, Spotted Bear, Black Deer, Turkey 
Leg, Cut Nose, Whistler, Big Mouth, Cold Feet, Cold Face, 
Crazy Lodge, and several others. 

The commissioners were Generals Sherman, Harney, Terry, 
Augur, and Sanborn, Honorable N. G. Taylor, Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, Colonel Tappan, and Senator Henderson. 

The chief subject discussed by the Indians was the abandon- 
ment of the roads running through their country. They urged 
this on the ground that the railroads drove off the wild game and 
so deprived them of their subsistence. The Indians, of course, 
asked for many things, but the main point they made was that 
they could not readily adapt themselves to the settled life which 
the commissioners recommended. Stanley quotes one man as 
saying: "Ever since I have been born I have eaten wild meat. 
My father and grandfather ate wild meat before me; we cannot 
give up quickly the customs of our fathers." This was a brief 
and telling summary of the Indians' point of view. 

This council was preliminary to the one to be held near Fort 
Larned in October, and when it adjourned it was with the pur- 
pose of meeting there. 

In October, 1867, at a camp on Medicine Lodge Creek, in 
southern Kansas, was signed the treaty of peace known as the 
treaty of Medicine Lodge. The Indian tribes who took part 
were the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Apaches, and Comanches. 
The members of the peace commission were Generals Terry, Har- 
ney, Sanborn, and Augur, Senator John B. Henderson, Commis- 
sioner N. G. Taylor, and Colonel Tappan. There were present 



260 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

also Governor Crawford, Ex-Lieutenant Governor Root, and 
Senator Ross. The secretary was A. S. H. White. The occasion 
was one of importance. The commission was escorted to the place 
of meeting by three troops of the Seventh Cavalry, and a battery 
of gatling guns. A number of newspaper correspondents were 
present, among them H. M. Stanley, then correspondent of the 
New York Herald, and afterward famous as the African explorer. ^ 

The events leading up to the council at wliich this treaty was 
signed were these: 

During the spring of 1867 Indians had been doing more or 
less raiding on the Arkansas, and Colonel Leavenworth, then 
agent for the Kiowas and Comanches, had been ordered by the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs to try to bring together all the 
tribes that had been hostile, and to make a peace with them. In 
order to do this. Colonel Leavenworth wrote to George Bent, 
asking him to do what he could to persuade some of the head 
men among the Indians to come in, and meet Leavenworth at 
the mouth of the Little Arkansas River, where the Wichitas were 
then living. Bent was then (June, 1867) camped with all the 
Southern Chej^ennes in Texas, on a stream known to the Chey- 
ennes as Bitter Water,^ but called by the whites Sweet Water. 
The messenger from Leavenworth to Bent was a Mexican, named 
Sylvestro, who for a long time had been living with different tribes 
of Indians — Wichitas, Kiowas, Comanches, and Cheyennes. 

When Black Kettle, chief of the Cheyennes, was consulted 
about the matter, he expressed his willingness to go, and he, 
Sylvestro, and Bent, with two or three other men and w^omen, 
started to go to the mouth of the Little Arkansas. There they 
found Colonel Leavenworth, and camped with him were Ten 
Bears and Long Hat, chiefs of the Comanches, Wolf Sleeve, of 
the Apaches, and Black Eagle, a young chief of the Kiowas, 
with two or three of his people. Three Arapahoes came in the 
same day that Bent and Black Kettle reached there. One of 
these was a subchief, named Yellow Horse. 

The day after these people got in, Colonel Leavenworth met 

^ The witnesses to the treaty were Thomas Murphy, Major Douglas, H. M. 
Stanley, John Smith, and George Bent. Lieutenant, now Major-General, 
E. S. Godfrey was attached to the escort. 

* Wi tlhk'I map. 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 261 

the chiefs and explained to them that he had been ordered by 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to meet some of the chiefs of 
the different tribes, and discuss the question of peace, and to ask 
them to select a place where they would meet commissioners 
who were to come out from Washington to talk matters over, and 
make a peace, if this could be arranged. Colonel Leavenworth 
asked them to choose a place not too far from Fort Larned, be- 
cause presents were to be sent out to them, and as there were no 
roads in the country, and the goods would have to be hauled by 
teams, they wished to deliver them as near the point of supply 
as possible. 

All the chiefs present seemed to agree that it was desirable 
to be on friendly terms with the white people, and Black Kettle 
declared that he would return to his camp, consult with his 
people, and ask them to select a meeting place. He added that 
the other tribes must be consulted, and all would have to agree 
on the place of meeting. Ten Bears, of the Comanches, without 
any hesitation expressed the opinion that some place on Medicine 
Lodge Creek would be more convenient than any other. The 
country from Fort Larned down to that stream was level, and 
wagons would have no difficulty in reaching it. 

To Black Kettle and Yellow Horse he said: "Tell your people 
what I say, and tell them that this is the best place for us to 
meet." 

After their talk with Colonel Leavenworth, the chiefs dis- 
persed to their various camps. 

At this time the only people who were raiding on the Arkansas 
were the Cheyennes, who had been running off stock, and killing 
white men. As soon as Black Kettle had returned to his camp, 
this raiding ceased. The chiefs stopped it, insisting that the 
young men should no longer commit depredations on the whites. 

Colonel Leavenworth now returned to Fort Larned for further 
instructions, and asked Bent to remain at the mouth of the Little 
Arkansas, until further orders. Leavenworth was gone for about 
a month. William Griffenstein, a trader who had married into 
the Cheyenne tribe, was camped near the Wichita, and Bent 
stayed with him. 

On Colonel Leavenworth's return he read Bent a letter an- 
nouncing that Thomas Murphy, the Superintendent of Indian 



262 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Affairs for the District, was already at Fort Lamed, and that 
great quantities of goods were being shipped in there for distri- 
bution to the Indians. 

"Now," said Colonel Leavenworth, "I wish you to go out 
and gather up these Indians, and get them to come in to what- 
ever point they have selected, and from time to time to send me 
a runner telling me where it is to be; then come back and meet 
me at Chisholm's ranch, at Council Grove, on the north fork of 
the Canadian." 

Accordingly, with a companion Bent started out to look for 
the Indians. The first village they came to was that of the Arapa- 
hoes, all of whom were camped on the Cimarron. Bent delivered 
Colonel Leavenworth's message to the Arapahoes, who said that 
they would move in toward the Medicine Lodge, and soon started. 
He learned from the Arapahoes that the Cheyenne camp was on 
Beaver Creek, a little below where Wolf Creek runs into it, and 
after resting their horses for two days, they went thither, and 
found a large village of Cheyennes, in which w^ere all the Dog 
Soldiers, who had recently moved south from the Republican 
River and joined the main village. 

The Cheyennes agreed to go to the meeting place, and Black 
Kettle and a few men went over to the camp of the Kiowas and 
Comanches, who also agreed to meet at this place, whither the 
Apaches — at that time living with the Arapahoes — had already 
gone with the Arapahoes. Black Kettle asked Bent, when he 
returned, to take with him a part of Black Kettle's family, and 
leave them at the Arapaho camp. After leaving Black Kettle's 
people with the Arapahoes, Bent went on to Council Grove. 

Colonel Leavenworth had not reached there, but Griffenstein 
had a letter saying that Colonel Leavenworth had been ordered 
back to Larned, and that Bent should go there, and on his way 
should get the chiefs of the various tribes, and bring them into 
the post to meet the superintendent. Griffenstein and Bent 
started for Larned, stopping on their way at a village of the 
Comanches. Ten Bears and Long Hat said that they were moving 
over to Medicine Lodge, and after telling Bent where the Arapaho 
and Cheyenne villages would be found, requested him to ask the 
chiefs of those tribes to await their arrival, so that all the chiefs 
might go together to Larned. 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 263 

The Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs waited as requested, and 
four or five days after Bent's arrival at the Cheyenne camp, the 
Kiowa and Comanche chiefs arrived, and these head men — per- 
haps sLxty or seventy in all — started for Larned, about seventy 
miles distant. On the way they camped at Rattlesnake Creek, 
and starting very early in the morning reached Larned early in 
the day. Runners had been sent ahead to notify Colonel Leaven- 
worth that they were coming, and when they reached the post 
they found that tents for their use had already been put up. The 
Indians had a talk with Superintendent Murphy, at which John 
Smith did the interpreting for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, 
Bent declaring himself weary after the long rides he had made in 
the effort to get the Indians together. 

At the council which was to be held, old Jesse Chisholm, a 
half-breed Cherokee who had a ranch not far from where Okla- 
homa City now is, on the north fork of the Canadian River, was 
to interpret for the Kiowas and Comanches, and Bent for the 
Cheyennes and Arapahoes. Yellow Horse, the Arapaho, talked 
good Cheyenne. 

A few days after this. Murphy moved out to Medicine Lodge 
Creek, and selected a spot for the council ground. It was a wide, 
level flat on the north side of the stream, with timber above and 
below, and good camping places. 

Black Kettle's camp of Cheyennes — only about twenty-five 
lodges — was on the south side of the stream, and at some distance 
below him was the camp of the Comanches, and below that the 
camp of the Kiowas. The Arapaho camp was on the north side 
of the stream, above Black Kettle's, and the camp of the Apaches 
was also on the north side, nearly opposite the Comanches. The 
main Cheyenne camp was over on the Cimarron, about twenty 
miles distant, and south of Black Kettle's camp on Medicine 
Lodge Creek. 

Superintendent Murphy was camped here for about a month 
before the commissioners came, and during all this time six-mule 
teams were busy hauling out goods and presents from Fort Larned. 
Among the things sent out were a herd of beef cattle, much coffee, 
sugar and flour, and dried fruits, and a vast quantity of blankets 
and clothing, material made up for the use of troops during the 
Civil War, and at its close left over in the hands of the War De- 



264 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

partment. The War Department had turned this clothing over 
to the Interior Department for issue to the Indians. The beef 
was strange food to the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who had been 
accustomed to live solely on buffalo, but the Kiowas and Coman- 
ches, who had been in Texas, ate it readily. In the region about 
the council ground buffalo were abundant, and the Cheyennes 
had no difficulty in procuring their accustomed food. 

The peace commission left Fort Lamed October 13, 1867, for 
the camp on Medicine Lodge. Word had been received from 
Thomas Murphy that he already had four hundred and thirty- 
one lodges of people on the ground, and expected about as many 
more. He believed that there would be five thousand Indians at 
the council. Besides the commissioners, the Indian Department 
was represented by Superintendent Murphy, Colonel Leaven- 
worth, Major Wynkoop, Colonel Rankin, and John Smith, in- 
terpreter. General Augur reached the camp a little later. He 
had been ordered to join the commission, to take the place of 
General Sherman, who had been recalled to Washington. 

Stanley gives the Indians present at the council at the time 
when the commission reached the camp as 100 lodges of Coman- 
ches, 150 lodges of Kiowas, 171 lodges of Arapahoes, 85 lodges of 
Kiowas-Apaches, and 250 lodges of Cheyennes. 

When the commissioners arrived, their escort camped in a 
line some distance north of Medicine Lodge Creek. In front of 
the escort were lined up the wagons which had hauled out the 
supplies, and in front of these wagons was a line of tents occupied 
by the commissioners, a council tent, some tents containing stores, 
and at the east end of the line a guard tent. The council was 
held on the flat, between the commissioners' camp and the stream. 

The commissioners sat in a row in front of the great council 
tent, in which their clerks and stenographers did their writing. 
The Cheyenne and Arapaho chiefs sat to the right or west, while 
the chiefs of the Kiowas and Comanches sat to the left or east. 
Behind the chiefs, in a wide circle, sat all the old and middle-aged 
men of the various tribes, and off toward the stream, sitting on 
their horses, or lying on the ground and holding them, a great 
throng of young men and boys viewed the proceedings from a 
distance, for in those days it was not permitted for youths to be 
present at important meetings. 



MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 265 

At the first talk — an informal one between the members of 
the commission, and about twenty-five men from the different 
tribes — there seems to have been much difference of opinion 
among the Indians as to when the main talk should be held. 
The principal council, however, seems to have been October 19, 
when many speeches were made. 

Senator Henderson proposed to the Kiowas that the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes should be moved south of the Arkansas River; 
that the Kiowas should settle on the Red River, and around the 
Wichita Mountains, and made various promises to feed and 
clothe them, and to give them other presents. It was believed 
by Stanley that the Kiowas would sign the treaty on the follow- 
ing day, and, in fact, ten Kiowa and ten Comanche chiefs did 
sign it. 

The Cheyennes took their time about coming in. It seems 
that they were making a medicine lodge, and, according to Little 
Robe, could not be there for five or six days. The commissioners 
agreed to wait four days, and apparently the Cheyennes did come 
in and sign, though definite information as to this is lacking. 

After the treaty had been agreed upon and signed by the 
chiefs, the commissioners announced that they must return, and 
that now the presents would be issued to the people. The chiefs 
of the various tribes touched the pen to receipt for these goods, 
which were at once hauled out and deposited on the ground in 
three great piles; the one to the east was for the Kiowas and 
Comanches; that in the middle for the Cheyennes, and that to 
the west for the Arapahoes and Apaches. The chiefs selected a 
few men from the different bands of soldiers, and directed them 
to distribute the goods to the women and children. The quantity 
of material given out was very great — so great, in fact, that the 
Indians could by no means carry it all away, but left piles of 
clothing, blankets, and other things lying on the ground. \Yhen 
the tribes separated to go to their respective camps, almost all 
the people were on foot, for all the horses were packed with food, 
blankets, and other things, and so heavily loaded that the marches 
were very short. Many of the travois were full of nests of camp 
kettles, and axes, and other hardware. The packs were contin- 
ually coming off, the travois breaking down, and the abundance 
of their property made much trouble for the women. 



266 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Later this same peace commission went north, and was sup- 
posed to have made a treaty of peace with the Brule and Ogallala 
Sioux, and Northern Cheyennes, and with the Crows. On the 
other hand. General Pope had already opened the Powder River 
or Bozeman Road to Montana through the last hunting ground 
of Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Sioux, and along it had been built — 
in the face of the protests of the Indians — Forts Reno, Phil 
Kearny, and C. F. Smith. As Stanley points out, by this means 
war had been brought about, and had raged along the Platte 
and along the line of this military road. The giving of a few 
presents and the signing of treaties by a few chiefs would not 
appease the Indians, whose livelihood, the buffalo, was being de- 
stroyed and driven away. 



XXI 

BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 

1868 

In considering the old wars on the plains, certain conditions 
now forgotten must be remembered. The Indians were well sup- 
plied with horses, and were absolutely at home on the prairie. 
It was always difficult for the troops to overtake them. A party 
followed by enemies usually left behind a man or two on swift 
horses, who from the top of some high hill watched the back 
trail, so that the escaping people might have timely notice of 
the approach of pursuers. If the enemy drew too close, the In- 
dians gradually separated, turning off by ones and twos from the 
main party — choosing places where the ground was hard and 
hoof-prints of the horses were not easily to be seen — until the 
pursued were reduced to a very few, who finally changed their 
direction, and the trail was lost. For the most part regular troops 
had little skill in prairie craft. They depended on citizen guides, 
who were supposed to be prairie men, to know the country, and 
to be good trailers. 

In the summer of 1868, Major George A. Forsyth, brevet 
colonel on General Sheridan's staff, suggested the enrolment of 
a body of scouts enlisted from among the frontiersmen living on 
the border, who might fight the Indians somewhat in their own 
way. General Sheridan authorized Colonel Forsyth to employ 
fifty first-class frontiersmen, to be commanded by himself, with 
Lieutenant Fred Beecher as second in command. Like Forsj'th, 
Beecher had served through the Civil War. Doctor J. H. jNIooers, 
of the Medical Department of the Army, was the surgeon. 

Fifty-one men were enrolled, armed with Spencer repeating 
rifles, carrying six cartridges in the magazine and one in the barrel, 
and Colt's army revolvers. 

The little command moved out from Fort Hays August 29, 
and after some scouting struck the trail of a small war party of 

267 



268 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Indians, which was followed until it disappeared. The scouts kept 
on north toward the Republican River, and its tributary streams, 
where buffalo were plenty. Here were favorite camping places 
of the Indians. 

The scouts finally came on a broad and beaten trail, where a 
large village of Indians had passed. They followed this. 

On the night of September 16, they camped on what they 
supposed to be Delaware Creek, the tributary of the Republican 
where in 1844 the Cheyennes had the battle^ with Shawnee or 
Delaware trappers. The camp was actually on the Arickaree Fork 
of the Republican River. The stream bed was a wide, dry sand 
flat with here and there a water-hole, and on its south side, sep- 
arated from the mainland by a narrow sandy channel, was the 
low island, or sand-bar, later called Beecher Island. It had not 
been overflowed for some time, for on it grew willows, rushes, 
and even a cottonwood tree of some size. 

Here took place the Beecher Island fight, the tradition of 
which for many years was a vivid and thrilling story on the 
western plains. That story endured as an oft-told tale, until 
settlements became numerous and other matters, nearer in time, 
and so more important, occupied the attention of those who 
lived near the scene of the battle. As a new population came in, 
the memory of the occurrence grew dim, and its heroes were for- 
gotten. 

Twenty-five years after it took place. General Forsyth wrote 
an account of it, and later another writer took Forsyth's story, 
and enlarged on it. General Forsyth's story of the fight, written 
from a popular point of view, is misleading. That of the man 
who followed him is laboriously worked up to be still more ex- 
citing. Both stories — like most of those written about Indian 
fights — are full of error. 

General Forsyth reported thirty-five Indians killed and be- 
lieved that many more had been carried away on their horses, 
to which they were tied. He seems to make it appear that great 
numbers of Indians were killed in an early charge — before two 
o'clock. He tells of volleys fired by his men, of falling Indians 
and horses, and of the killing of Roman Nose. 

The Cheyenne story is quite different. They give many de- 

1 P. 73. 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 269 

tails of the fight, among them the names of the six Cheyennes 
and one Arapaho who were killed, the names of the two Sioux 
being unknown. Roman Nose was killed late in the day. 

The diary of one of the scouts who fought on Beecher Island 
was recently published. It is a straightforward narrative of what 
he saw. The battle is described in temperate language, and the 
astounding events set down in earlier published accounts are not 
mentioned. The greatest hardship of the unwounded — apart 
from anxiety — was lack of food. 

The scout whose diary^ has been published was Chauncey 
B. Whitney, a good prairie man and Indian fighter, who was 
killed in August, 1873. His narrative is simple, and his figures 
of the loss by the Indians are as reasonable as could be expected 
from one who was guessing. 

From x\ugust 29 to September 16, inclusive, the entries are 
brief, and without special interest: 

(Sept.) 17. — About daylight this morning was aroused by the cry of In- 
dians. Eight tried to stampede the stock, got seven horses. In a few mo- 
ments the bottoms were completely filled with red devils. Went across 
the river on to an island, when the fight commenced. About 500 attacked 
us on all sides, with their unearthly yells. The balls flew thick and fast. 
The Colonel was the first man wounded. Lieutenant Beecher was wounded 
twice, as was also the Colonel. In a few moments eight or ten were hurt, 
some fatally. The ground on which our little squad was fighting was sandy. 
We commenced to scoop out the sand with our hands to make intrench- 
ments for ourselves. In a few moments I was joined by two others, who 
helped me. With a butcher knife and our hands we soon had a trench which 
completely covered us from the enemy. Behind the works we fought the 
red devils all day till dark. Only two men were hurt after we intrenched 
ourselves. Culver was killed and McCall wounded. William Wilson was 
also killed early in the morning. 

18th. — This morning the Indians made a slight charge on us, but were 
speedily repulsed. They were after three of their dead who lay about twenty 
yards from us. About fifty of the red devils were killed and wounded. They 
kept firing from the hills and ravines all day. No one hurt to-day. Two 
men started to Wallace. 

19th. — The Indians made another attack this morning, but were easily 
driven off. About ten o'clock this evening myself and A. J. Pliley were re- 
quested by the Colonel to go to Fort Wallace. We started, but a few rods 
from the battle ground we found the Indians had surrounded the camp, 

* Kansas Historical Collections, 1911-12, vol. XII, p. 296. 



270 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and forced us to return. Was awake all night. It rained all night steady, 
and everybody was wet and cold. Am very lame with rheumatism to-day. 

20th. — Sunday, and all is quiet. No attack this morning. Last night 
I slept for the first time in three nights. Our surgeon, Doctor Mooers, died 
this morning about daylight. He was shot in the head. He did not speak 
from the time he was shot until he died. We had twenty men killed and 
wounded; four dead. 

21st. — No Indians seen to-day; all dined and supped on horse meat. 

22d. — No Indians to-day. Killed a coyote this morning; it was very 
good. Most of the horse meat gone. Found some prickly pears which were 
very good. Are looking anxiously for succor from the fort. 

23d. — Still looking anxiously for relief. Starvation is staring us in the 
face. Nothing but horse meat. 

24th. — All fresh horse meat gone. Tried to kill some wolves last night, 
but failed. The boys began to cut putrid horse meat. Made some soup 
to-night from putrified horse meat. "My God ! have you deserted us?" 

The following day the first rescue party appeared, and from 
that time on there was plenty to eat. 

Their imagination colored the stories told by the w^hites. 
They were fighting for their lives against tremendous odds, and 
were excited, anxious, doubtful. The Indians' viewpoint was 
quite different. For years war had been their almost constant 
occupation, and the work of carrying it on had become common- 
place. Fights such as this — not so large to be sure, but essentially 
similar — were of frequent occurrence. Sometimes they were 
successful; sometimes they lost men, were beaten and ran away. 
Whatever the event, they manifested neither special triumph in 
success, nor mortification at failure. The old-time Indian was 
a far better observer than most white men. He saw more clearly 
what was happening, and usually reported facts more accurately. 
On the other hand, he was weak in reasoning from what he saw. 

As the Indians report the Forsyth fight, there was no such 
great loss as the whites claim. Their killed would have been 
fewer, but for the fact that two or three of the white scouts were 
hidden in rifle-pits, in the long grass, at a little distance from the 
main command, and the Indians, ignorant of this ambuscade, 
often rode close to it, and three were killed there. 

A number of Indians who took part in this fight have told me 
what they saw of it. Some of these live in Oklahoma, and others 
in Montana. In the main incidents all the stories agree. All give 
the same names and numbers for the killed, and describe what 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 271 

took place in matter-of-fact fashion, and with no apparent thought 
of making much of it. It was a hard fight, but one of the every- 
day happenings of the time. They do not know whether they 
killed any of the white scouts or not. 

About twelve miles down the river from the scouts' camp of 
September 16 were two large villages of Sioux, under Pawnee 
Killer, and one of Cheyennes, with a few Northern Arapahoes. 
The Cheyennes were chiefly Dog Soldiers, and among them were 
such well-known men as White Horse and Tall Bull, chiefs of the 
Dog Soldiers, but not chiefs of the tribe, and Roman Nose, a 
man of great courage, a splendid fighter, and looked up to by 
the whole tribe. He was a brave, possessed great influence, and 
was an acknowledged leader in war. He was not a chief. 

These three Indian villages knew nothing of the presence of 
white men in the vicinity. A war party of Cheyennes returning 
from the South had reached the Cheyenne camp only three days 
before the whites were seen, and, a day or two before Forsyth 
reached the camp where he was attacked, a war party of Sioux 
had started south from this camp. Some of the young men of 
this war party left it and turned back, and were returning to the 
Sioux villages when they discovered Forsyth's command on the 
march. They recognized these as white men, and a fighting force, 
and did not show themselves, but went around, keeping out of 
sight, and when they reached their village announced that "sol- 
diers" were coming. This news was shouted out to the camp, 
and caused much uneasiness, and some of the Sioux rode up to 
the Cheyenne camp, and told them what had been reported. 

The Indian camps were now buzzing with excitement, and 
young men and boys were running about, driving in the horses 
from the prairie. All wanted their war horses. An old crier be- 
gan to harangue the Cheyennes, urging them to make ready, and 
get into the fight as soon as possible. Roman Nose asked the 
crier to direct the Cheyennes to go on to the fight, and not to 
wait for Roman Nose. When he was ready he would come. 

The report was received early in the day, and it was the 
middle of the morning — nine or ten o'clock — when they began 
to get ready to fight. Each man must first catch and tie up his 
favorite war horse, and then paint himself and dress for the fight. 
If there was time, each man put on his finest war costume before 



272 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

going into battle. Meantime, White Horse and Tall Bull had 
gone down to the Sioux camp, and had advised the Sioux to make 
ready, so that the Indians might attack in one body. 

Failure to organize — in war as in most other things — has al- 
ways been the weakness of Indians. Small groups of men were 
likely to steal off from the war party, and make independent at- 
tacks in the hope that they might accomplish some great thing, 
which would gain the applause of their fellows. Many of the Dog 
Soldiers, however, were opposed to these independent attacks; and 
besides giving advice to the Sioux, they sent word to the Arapahoes 
asking them to wait so that all might go together. At length, 
when all were ready, they started in a body to meet the enemy. 
There were many Indians, and all prepared for the fight. The 
warriors had war bonnets, shields, and lances, and all their protec- 
tive medicines. Notwithstanding the statements made by white 
writers, they had few guns, and all of these were old muzzle- 
loaders. 

The Indians supposed that the soldiers, as they called them, 
were on the way to attack the village, and they moved slowly in 
the direction where they supposed the troops to be, awaiting the 
attack. But Forsyth had gone up above on the river, and did not 
know that this camp was below him. He was marching directly 
away from it. On the other hand, the Indians had lost Forsyth's 
command, and did not know where he was. By this time it was 
late in the day, and when night fell and it grew dark the chiefs 
determined to stop where they were, until they could learn the 
situation of the soldiers. 

In the middle of the night, eight young men, eager to perform 
some creditable act, mounted their horses and set out to look for 
the enemy, thinking that they might capture some of their horses. 
Two of these — Starving Elk and Little Hawk — were Cheyennes, 
and six were Sioux, and of the six Sioux one had been of the war 
party who had brought to the village the news that white men 
were coming. He gave his fellows the general direction in which 
he supposed the white men must have gone, but they could find 
no sign of them. They rode from hill to hill, stopped to listen, 
and often dismounted and held their ears close to the ground, 
but could hear nothing. Just before daybreak, however, they 
saw, far off, the light of fires being kindled. They rode toward 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 273 

them quietly, until they could see the horses and mules scattered 
about, and then, making all the noise they could and waving robes 
and blankets, they charged through the herd, to stampede it. A 
few horses broke loose from their picket-pins, but they secured 
only seven. This gave the first alarm the scouts had, and was 
their first knowledge that Indians were about. 

Just as day began to show in the morning, the main party of 
the Indians rose, and started off to the northwest. As they passed 
over the next hill, those in the lead saw the distant fires. Forsyth's 
animals were now nearly packed, ready to start. Men who had 
gone ahead to make sure that the fires were those of the soldiers 
returned and called out: "It is the soldiers." Then, although the 
chiefs tried to restrain the Indians, they formed a line with a 
broad front, and charged. 

It was just then that the scouts saw the Indians. Forsyth's 
men hurried over to the island, and took the loads off their animals, 
piling up the packs for breastworks. 

When the Indians began their charge they must have been 
two or three miles from the troops, so that Forsyth's men had 
some time to heap up breastworks. The Indians charged up the 
valley and the dry stream bed, and when they came to the island 
divided, a part going on one side, and a part on the other. The 
island was only about a hundred yards long, and not very wide. 
The channel was broad on one side of it, but on the other narrow. 
The troops began shooting just as soon as the Indians were with- 
in range. 

The charging Indians had intended to ride over the white 
men, but when they had come close to the island their hearts 
failed them, and they passed around on either side. One man. 
Bad Heart — died 1875 — did ride over the island and through the 
scouts, and was not hit by the bullets, nor was his horse hit. He 
completed the first charge, and rode up on the hill beyond, and, 
after a little, turned about, and again charged back over the 
island and through the scouts, and came out un wounded. No 
Indians were killed in this first charge. 

After the first charge, the Indians circled around the island, 
and while doing this, the first Indian was killed. It was Dry 
Throats During a part of this time many of Forsyth's men were 

> O'S Is t5'6v, Dry Throat. 



274 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

outside the breastworks, some standing up and others in plain 
sight, but soon the Indians came so close around them that all 
jumped behind the breastworks into the rifle-pits. The older 
Indians had stopped on the hill to look on, while the younger 
men kept riding toward and about the island from all directions. 
Soon after this Cloud Chief's^ horse was killed, and near it they 
also shot the horse ridden by Two Crows.^ 

Two or three of Forsyth's men were not on the island behind 
the breastworks, but were by themselves on the mainland. It is 
said that they had been sent down to hold the lower, or east, end 
of the island, and that on the way there, instead of going to the 
east end of the island, they crossed the narrow channel, and dug 
rifle-pits in the sand in some high grass under a low sand bluff 
on the east side of the stream. One of these men was Stillwell. 
There were at least two men in this position, but for some time 
the Indians did not know that they were there. 

The second man killed was White Weasel Bear.^ Some inter- 
preters call him White Bear, or Ermine Bear, and one of his boy 
names was Scalp. He was killed by the scouts on the bank. 
Weasel Bear was on his horse, charging toward the island, and 
shaking his shield over his head, when he rode almost over the 
scouts' rifle-pit, and they shot him, the ball striking the hip, pass- 
ing up through the body and coming out at the top of the back. 

Weasel Bear had a nephew, White Thunder,^ or Old Lodge 
Skins.^ He saw his uncle fall from his horse, but did not know 
whence the shot had come that hit him. He supposed his uncle 
had been shot from the island, and went down to see if he was 
dead. When he was about ten feet from the scouts, as he was 
stooping down in the high grass, they shot him through the 
shoulder, and the ball came out just above the waist. White 
Thunder was a young man of nineteen or twenty, the son of 
White Horse. 

The Indians continued to ride about the island, and to shoot 
at the men behind the breastworks. Two Crows's horse having 

1 Wo'e vi'hiti, Cloud Chief. « Ok'sia nis'sis, Two Crows. 

' Hva'hS nah'ku, White Weasel Bear. 

* Woh'k pe nQ num'a, White Thunder, also translated Gray Thunder or 
Painted Thunder. 

' Mohk se'a nis, Old Lodge Skins. 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 275 

been killed, he was now out of the fight and was sitting down 
looking on. White Horse^ now rode up to his brother, Two 
Crows, and said to him: "Your nephew. White Thunder, has 
been killed. You will do well to get his horse and go into the 
fight." Two Crows got the horse and mounted, and soon the 
Indians got together and made another charge toward the island. 
This time they did not go as close as before, but kept farther 
away. The balls were flying worse than ever. 

After the charge Two Crows went over the hill, and soon one 
of the chiefs called out: "All you men get back and tie up your 
horses and then go forward on foot." 

All dismounted and soon went forward on foot, approaching 
as near the island as they dared. The prairie was level, but just 
south of the island grew a few little red willow twigs which made 
a sort of cover. Three Indians crept through these and then 
rushed up close to the breastworks and dug holes in the sand 
to hide in. When they approached the island they ran openly 
over the sand until they had come close to the white men, and fell 
on their bellies and began to dig away the sand and heap up 
little shelters for themselves, so that they should be hidden 
from the men who were shooting at them only a few yards off. 
After they had made their hiding-places, as they raised their 
heads to shoot two of these men were shot in the head. One of 
them was Prairie Bear,^ another was a Northern Arapaho named 
Little Man. The third, Good Bear,^ got up and ran away, dodg- 
ing and running from side to side. 

Roman Nose'* had not yet got to the fight. Runners had gone 
to the camp and told Roman Nose that there was fighting, and a 
good many Indians were being killed. Then Roman Nose got 
on his horse and rode up to the battle-field, and when he got 
there one of the old chiefs cried out that Roman Nose had come. 
The Indians were still all about the island, but the fighting had 
stopped and everyone was standing back, waiting to see what 
Roman Nose would do. 

Roman Nose stopped on the top of the hill. Tangle Hair 
(died 1911) overtook him at this place and they sat down to- 
gether, and two or three other men came up and dismounted. 

1 Wohk'po am, White Horse. ^ TQk tti e nah'ku, Prairie Bear. 

3 Nah'ku wu'hi tah, Good Bear. * Wo 5 hkl nih", Roman Nose. 



276 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Roman Nose spoke to the others and said: "At the Sioux camp 
the other day something was done that I was told must not be 
done. The bread I ate was taken out of the frying-pan with 
something made of iron. I have been told not to eat anything 
so treated. This is what keeps me from making a charge. If I 
go into this fight I shall certainly be killed." 

While they sat there White Contrary rode up and said : " Well, 
here is Roman Nose, the man that we depend on, sitting behind 
this hill. He is the man that makes it easy for his men in any 
fight." Then, addressing Roman Nose, he went on: "You do 
not see your men falling out there ? Two fell just as I came up." 
Roman Nose laughed and replied: "What the old man says is 
true." White Contrary went on: "All those people fighting out 
there feel that they belong to you, and they will do all that you 
tell them, and here you are behind this hill." 

Roman Nose said: "I have done something that I was told 
not to do. My food was lifted with an iron tool. I know that I 
shall be killed to-day." Then he went off to one side and painted 
himself and got out his war bonnet, and began to shake it and to 
make ready to put it on. 

This war bonnet had been made long ago by White Bull — also 
known as Ice — a Northern Cheyenne. It had always protected 
Roman Nose in battle. 

There were certain taboos which were a part of the medicine 
of this war bonnet and which, if disregarded, took away its pro- 
tective power. One of these was that the man who wore it might 
not eat food that had been taken out of a dish with an iron in- 
strument. The food for the owner of this bonnet must be taken 
from the pot or other dish by means of a sharpened stick. If 
this law was not complied with the owner of the war bonnet would 
be hit by bullet or arrow in his next battle. An elaborate cere- 
mony of purification might restore the protective power of the 
war bonnet, but this ceremony was long and required much 
time. 

Shortly before Forsyth's command had been discovered, 
Roman Nose had been invited to a feast by a certain Sioux, and 
the woman who was preparing the food for the feasters used a 
fork to take from the frying-pan the bread she was cooking. 
This was not known when the food was served to the feasters, 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 277 

and Roman Nose ate the bread instead of abstaining, as he would 
have done if aware of the circumstances. Afterward Eight 
Horns, one of the Dog Soldiers, noticed that the woman, who was 
continuing her cooking, was using a fork and pointed out to 
Roman Nose what she was doing. Then Roman Nose said: 
"That breaks my medicine." 

Tall Bull, who heard of the matter, advised Roman Nose to 
go through the ceremony of purification at once, but almost im- 
mediately afterward and before Roman Nose had done anything 
Forsyth's scouts were discovered, and there was then no time 
for the ceremonies. 

After he had prepared himself for battle, Roman Nose mounted 
his horse, and rode fast up toward where the scouts were, and 
behind him followed many Indians. He rode almost over the 
scouts hidden in the high grass — the men who had shot Weasel 
Bear and White Thunder — and they shot Roman Nose in the 
back just above the hips. He fell off his horse at the edge of the 
grass, but a little later had strength to creep up from the sand 
to the bank, and before long some young men came down and 
carried him off. He lived for a little time, and died about sun- 
down. 

The Indians continued to charge toward and around the 
breastworks and to shoot at the soldiers, but with what result 
they did not know, because their enemies were out of sight be- 
hind the breastworks. 

During the day Two Crows and some other Cheyennes went 
down toward the river, creeping through the grass to try to 
recover the bodies of Weasel Bear and White Thunder, and 
when they got part way down there, they came on three other 
Cheyennes who had gone down for the same purpose. These 
men said to them: "Be very careful how you creep through the 
grass, because whenever the soldiers see the grass move they 
shoot at us, and two or three times they have come near hitting 
us." The Indians still did not know that Stillwell and his party 
were hidden in the grass just at the place to which they were 
going. 

Two Crows and his party went forward slowly and cautiously, 
so that they should not make the grass move much. As they 
were creeping along, scattered out and going very slowly, two 



278 THE FIGHTING CIIE\T:NNES 

shots came from the grass right in front of them. This was their 
first knowledge that Stillwell and his party were there. 

A man named Bear Feathers^ was cut across the right shoulder 
by one of these balls. It made only a flesh wound. 

Black Moon- told Bear Feathers to go back, because he 
thought he was badly wounded, but Bear Feathers said: "No, 
it is only a flesh wound." The shots sounded very close to them, 
and they knew that they were but a short distance from the white 
men. Nevertheless, Two Crows, Black Moon, and Cloud Chief 
continued to creep up toward the bodies. They were as slow and 
cautious as possible, but presently two more shots came from the 
rifle-pit, close in front of them. Two Crows' shield was tied on 
his back, and one of the balls hit the shield, and almost turned 
Two Crows over. The other bullet made a flesh wound in Black 
Moon's shoulder. Cloud Chief and Two Crows were now the 
only two men who were not wounded. Two Crows and Cloud 
Chief advised Black Moon to go back, because of his wound. 
The men who had started with Two Crows had stopped when 
they had overtaken Black Moon and Bear Feathers. 

Weasel Bear and White Thunder had been killed in the grass 
very close to the rifle-pit, and to one another, and by this time 
Two Crows and Cloud Chief were only ten feet from the dead 
men. 

Spotted Wolf and Star, who had been left behind, now crept 
up cautiously through the grass. Two Crows and Cloud Chief 
lay still. They dared not move, for fear that they might stir 
the grass. Cloud Chief was lying about six feet from Two Crows. 
The men who were coming up from behind must have moved 
the grass, for presently two more shots came from in front, and 
one of the balls cut Cloud Chief in the arm, making a flesh wound. 
Star came up behind and caught Two Crows by the feet and said : 
"How much further ahead are they?" meaning the men they 
were trying to drag away. Two Crows said very softly: "They 
are right over there ahead of us, only a little way." Presently 
they all crawled up fast through the grass, and the white men 

1 Nahk'wu tun Ivt', Bear Feathers. 

2 Ish'I m6hk ta'vas, commonly translated Black Moon, but really Black 
Sun and meaning a total eclipse of the sun from an eclipse once seen by a 
war party on its travels. The war party, of course, turned back. 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 279 

shot twice again, but the balls went over them. Cloud Chief, 
being wounded, did not go up to the bodies. 

Weasel Bear and White Thunder were lying almost side by 
side. White Thunder just behind Ermine Bear. When they 
reached White Thunder they turned him over on his back. He 
was dead and already stiff. Other Indians were creeping up be- 
hind, and the white scouts shot at them, but they did not shoot 
any more at the men nearest to them. 

When they began to pull White Thunder along, crawling on 
their bellies, they could not drag him fast nor easily, but they 
started back on the trail that they had made in coming, and so 
did not move the grass much, and the white scouts did not seem 
to see them. At all events, they did not shoot at them, but shot 
at the men behind them. 

Before they started with White Thunder, Star said: "Look 
at Weasel Bear; he is not dead. I can see his body move; he 
is still breathing." Two Crows said: "Are you still alive. Weasel 
Bear?" "Yes," replied Weasel Bear: "I am badly wounded; 
I cannot move." Then Two Crows said to him: "Wait, we are 
trying to get your nephew away from here, and when we^get him 
away we will come back and try to get you." 

Weasel Bear asked: "Is that my brother-in-law?" and Two 
Crows said "Yes." "I feel all right," said Weasel Bear: "Ex- 
cept that I am badly wounded through the hips and cannot 
move." 

Star said: "We cannot move White Thunder; I will creep 
quietly back and have them get a rope. In that way we can all 
get hold and pull him away." 

These men were lying in a line, one behind another, along the 
trail in the grass which they had made in creeping up to this 
place, and when they got the rope they threw it from one to 
another, and in that way it was soon passed up to the front. 
When the rope got up to where Two Crows and Spotted Wolf^ 
were lying, they passed the noose around the two feet of White 
Thunder and pulled it tight. All the different men who were 
lying there and who could reach it got a hold on the rope and 
pulled on it, and dragged White Thunder away. His body was 
pulled away by the other men, but Two Crows and Spotted Wolf 

» Oh nI"o wo wo'has, Spotted Wolf. 



280 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

just moved to one side, so as to let the body pass between them, 
and they remained there, near Weasel Bear. 

The scouts, seeing the grass move where the body of White 
Thunder was being dragged, fired a good many shots, but did not 
hit anyone. Two Crows and Spotted Wolf moved back a little. 

When White Thunder had been taken out of range of the 
white men's guns, they carried him away over the hill. Two 
Crows then took the rope, and with eight or nine others went to 
get Weasel Bear. They went very carefully along the trail that 
had been beaten down in dragging out the other body, and did 
not move the grass, and the white men did not shoot at them at 
all. When Two Crows got up to Weasel Bear he said: "My 
brother-in-law, we have come for you now." 

Weasel Bear said: "That is good. I am glad of it. I feel all 
right except that my legs are paralyzed. I cannot move." 

Two Crows looped the rope about Weasel Bear's feet, and 
they dragged him away as the other man had been dragged. 

The last man killed in this fight was Killed by a Bull. He 
was a Cheyenne Dog Soldier, and the Indians say he was shot on 
the hill at a considerable distance from the breastworks while 
helping to carry the body of Dry Throat. General Forsyth de- 
scribes this death in detail, and says that on being hit the In- 
dian sprang into the air with a yell "of surprise and anguish and 
rolled over stone-dead." This yell must have been heard at a 
distance of two-thirds of a mile — a long way. 

Killed by a Bull was buried in the lodge found by the troops 
that came to rescue Forsyth, and on him much imagination and 
many adjectives were expended, under the impression that he 
was Roman Nose. 

Roman Nose was buried on a scaffold. Medicine Woman, 
still living, and now the wife of Porcupine Bull, helped the wife 
of Roman Nose to bring up her lodge-poles to raise the scaffold 
for his burial. 

The night after the first day's fight. Colonel Forsyth sent out 
two men, Trudeau and Stillwell, to Fort Wallace, asking for help. 
These men got through without much trouble, reached Fort 
Wallace and delivered their despatches. A party set out from 
Wallace, guided by Stillwell; and a courier was sent to Colonel 
L. H. Carpenter^ who was scouting toward Denver. On receiv- 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 281 

ing the news, Carpenter turned north, and was the first to reach 
the beleaguered men, whom he brought back to the post. The 
wounded all recovered. 

The day after Roman Nose was killed, the Indians returned 
and charged up to the command and fought there all day, and 
again on the third day some of the Cheyennes went back to see 
whether the soldiers had gone away or were still there. On 
this day also they had a little fight. 

There were many Indians in this fight, probably six hundred. 
There were killed in all nine Indians — six Cheyennes, one Arapaho, 
and two Sioux. Roman Nose and Prairie Bear were Northern 
Cheyennes. Dry Throat, White Thunder — or Old Lodge Skins — 
Weasel Bear, and Killed by a Bull were Dog Soldiers. The North- 
ern Arapaho was Little Man. He was a chief. The names of 
the two Sioux killed are not known. The Indians agree that all 
that saved Forsyth and his command was that he got on the 
island and remained there. If he had gone out on the prairie 
there were so many Indians that the whole command would 
have been destroyed. 

As the most famous of the Northern Cheyennes, Roman 
Nose was regarded as the hero of this fight on the Indian side, 
yet it is clear that no one in Forsyth's command knew Roman 
Nose. General Forsyth states that the scout Grover identified 
Roman Nose, but while Grover had had some intercourse with 
the Sioux he did not know the Northern Cheyennes. In the 
accounts of the fight, a description of Roman Nose by General 
Fry is often quoted. The Indian is described as wearing a white 
buffalo-robe — a bit of fanciful description, like one in another 
sentence which says: "The muscles under the bronze of his skin 
stood out like twisted wires." Indians are notable for their 
smooth, rounded, small, and symmetrical limbs. They are never 
muscled like a blacksmith or a prize-fighter — though painters 
sometimes represent them so. 

Roman Nose is said to have been a chief, to have led the 
early charge in the first day's fighting, to have worn a war bonnet 
with two bull's horns, to have worn a white buffalo-robe, and to 
have been buried in a lodge. None of this is true. 

Roman Nose never wore a white buffalo-robe. To the Chey- 
ennes the white buffalo was a sacred object, which might not be 



282 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

handled or used by anyone. The flesh might not be eaten, nor 
the hide tanned by a woman of the tribe. The flesh was left on 
the prairie, and the skin was presented as a votive offering to the 
powers above. 

It is said that back of the mounted warriors the bluff was 
covered with women and children watching the progress of the 
fight, and that from the camp were heard dismal wailings, the 
women mourning over their dead. The Indians declare that 
the only women who appeared near the battle-field were those 
who came with travois to carry away the dead. It would have 
been impossible to hear at the island the sounds of the camp 
twelve miles away. 

The scouts made a brave fight against tremendous odds and 
came off with comparatively slight loss. Colonel Forsyth's good 
judgment kept the command from being annihilated. 

The Carpenter Fighi 

Soon after the fight at Beecher Island the two villages of 
Sioux moved up the Republican River and the Northern Arap- 
ahoes also went a,way. There remained only the Cheyenne Dog 
Soldiers, with a few Northern and a few Southern Cheyennes, 
and half a dozen lodges of Sioux. 

Not long after the return from the rescue of Forsyth's scouts, 
about the middle of October, Captain L. H. Carpenter, with three 
troops of the Tenth Cavalry, was marching up the Beaver River 
on the north side of the stream. Some Indians, who were start- 
ing out to hunt buffalo, saw the troops and, returning to the vil- 
lage, announced that soldiers were coming. At this report the 
Cheyennes got up their horses and painted and dressed them- 
selves for war. 

A Northern Cheyenne, named as a boy Wan hai yu iv and 
later Bullet Proof,^ had just devised a special medicine which 
should render the soldiers' guns ineffective and make it possible 
for the Cheyennes to ride up close to them and kill them without 
danger. In order to exhibit this power to the people he had 
chosen a number of young men whom he had instructed how to 
dress and act. Of these two wore each a sash made of the hide 
from the head, shoulders, and fore legs of a four-year-old buft'alo 

1 Ho ho'I tu'I, Bullet Proof. 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 283 

bull which hung over the right shoulder and, passing across breast 
and back, met under the left arm. The horns left on the bull's 
head rested on the man's shoulder, one in front and the other 
behind. The other young men wore similar sashes of deerskin 
with the hair on, and to each end of each sash was attached a tiny 
mirror. 

The men chosen for this work were: Feathered Bear,^ Little 
Hawk,2 White Man's Ladder,^ Bobtailed Porcupine,* Breaks the 
Arrow (by stepping on it),^ Big Head,^ and Wolf Friend.'' There 
were thus to have been eight men including Bullet Proof, who, 
however, was not to take any part in the fight, but merely to stand 
apart and direct operations. The whole camp had faith in Bul- 
let Proof's power, because at the fight at Beecher Island he had 
been shot in the breast and the ball appeared to go through him 
and come out at his back. When he found that he had been 
wounded Bullet Proof dismounted, put his hand on the ground 
and rubbed the hand over the wounds in front and behind. By 
this means he closed both wounds so that they did not bleed. 
From that time he was well. He declared to the Cheyennes that 
he would so instruct these young men that they might ride around 
the troops untouched by the bullets, and that finally the guns 
used against them would not go off at all. "At last," he said, 
"you will see the balls coming out of the muzzles of the guns 
and will see them fall to the ground." 

Bullet Proof told the young men that they must ride around 
the troops four times and that at the end of the fourth circle, if 
none of them had been killed or wounded then, any one of them 
might charge in among the troops and kill them without danger. 

After the Cheyennes had learned that the troops were near 
and had made their preparations, they set out in a body, riding 
very fast. The seven special men who were to prove Bullet 
Proof's power rode apart, on the right side of the main party. 

1 Nah'ku wut un'Jvt, Feathered Bear, as it is commonly called, but better 
translated as Bear Wearing a Plume of Eagle Feathers — Nah'ku = bear + 
wu tiin = Eagle Tail Feathers + iv = suffix of possession of quahty. 

2 Ain'hus, Young Hawk. 

' Vi'hTo e 6 won ha, White Man's Ladder. 

* Es cu'ats e'wa ho, Bobtailed Porcupine. 

^ Ma ai'6 si 6h I ho, Breaks the Arrow (by stepping on it). 

6 Mahk a ah', Big Head. ^ "Oni'h 6 mS bin', Wolf Friend. 



284 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

At last from the top of a hill they saw the troops and wagons 
climbing another hill. The Indians at once charged down toward 
them, and when the troops saw them coming they turned north 
toward the head of a little creek and made a corral of their wagons, 
putting the horses inside. When the Indians reached this corral 
of wagons they divided, one party going by on either side, and 
rode down into the little stream valley to wait and see the special 
men fight the soldiers. As the Indians passed, the soldiers opened 
fire on them and shot fast, but when they reached the stream 
beyond the soldiers the Indians dismounted and stopped there. 
Before they made the charge Bullet Proof had said to them: 
"After you have passed the soldiers and are on the other side, 
stop there and watch us. We are going to ride around them and 
let them shoot at us." 

Bullet Proof sent off his young men one by one. First came 
Feathered Bear, riding a fine spotted horse. This young man 
was already noted for his bravery. It was his father's practise 
before his son went into a fight always to tie on the son's head an 
upright plume made of the tail feathers of a sage hen. Feathered 
Bear had never been hit in battle, and when he heard of Bullet 
Proof's power he determined to take part in this attempt, think- 
ing that it might add to his reputation. 

Next after Feathered Bear came Little Hawk, who rode a 
buckskin horse, long-winded and fast — one of the best horses in 
the tribe. 

White Man's Ladder came third. He rode a light sorrel horse 
painted with a black disk on either shoulder, and with black zig- 
zag lines running down his legs. 

During the ride from the camp to where the troops were found 
the horses of Big Head and Wolf Friend had become tired out and 
could not run, so that they took no part in the charge. 

The fourth to start was one of the bull robes, Bobtailed Por- 
cupine; and after him followed the fifth and last man, the other 
bull robe, Breaks the Arrow. 

Bullet Proof took no part in the charge, but stood off at a 
distance and looked on. 

The young men rode hard, but did not get very far. Feath- 
ered Bear almost completed the circle, and then his horse was 
shot through the shoulders and fell, and Feathered Bear walked 



BEECHER ISLAND FIGHT 285 

away. Little Hawk's horse had his left leg broken at the point 
of the shoulder; was shot below the right eye and in the neck close 
to the body. The horse fell and Little Hawk, jumping off, 
struck the ground on his feet, running hard. He had forgotten 
the rope, which was tied to his belt and to his horse — as was 
usual in going into battle — and when he reached the end of the 
rope it jerked him back and he almost fell. He cut the rope, 
however, and ran on unwounded. The horse ridden by White 
Man's Ladder was shot in the black spot painted on its shoulder, 
in the paunch and also in the rump, three wounds. It did not 
fall, however, and the rider, seeing the animal's condition, turned 
out of the ring. Before the circle had been completed Breaks the 
Arrow and Bobtailed Porcupine were both killed. The latter 
was shot over the right eyebrow, and his relation. Breaks the Ar- 
row, in the backbone. Each had only a single wound, a wonder- 
ful thing when it is considered that the troops were shooting as 
fast as they could and the bullets were flying thick. 

After this result of Bullet Proof's medicine the Indians who 
were looking on mounted their horses and went away, and this 
was the end of the fight. It was, as a matter of fact, not a fight 
at all but the testing of Bullet Proof's power. Nevertheless, the 
military reports declare that ten Indians were killed and intimate 
that there was a battle, but the Indians did not charge on the 
troops. 

The soldiers walked up to where the dead men lay and looked 
at the one who was dead and the one who was wounded, and 
shortly after straightened out their wagons and went away, just 
before dark. 

The soldiers cut off parts of the scalps of the dead Indians. 
The one who was not dead was killed, the soldiers afterward said, 
by opening a vein in the neck. The Indians saw that he had a 
small cut in the neck. General Carr speaks of talking to the 
wounded Indian through a scout, Grover, familiar enough with 
the Sioux tongue, but unable to speak Cheyenne. He might, 
however, have talked by signs. 

The negro soldiers who came into the post after the occurrence 
said that they could not tell how many Indians had been killed, 
but that they knew of two. They also expressed surprise that 
the Indians showed so little fight. 



286 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Bullet Proof explained the failure of his medicine by saying 
that the young men had not followed out his instructions, but had 
gone too close to the troops at the beginning. He declared that 
he had told them to begin riding around the troops at a consider- 
able distance and to draw nearer and nearer to them only gradu- 
ally. 

After the troops had gone on, the Cheyennes took the two men 
who had been killed, laid them across horses, and brought them to 
the camp, where everyone came to see them. They were placed 
on a bed in a lodge. 

Bullet Proof, who was related to the two — one being a cousin 
and one his uncle — stood on his feet and said : " You people blame 
me for this, but it is not my fault; they did not do as I told them. 
Of coiuse, if you want to you can blame me, but they did not 
do as I instructed." 

An old man, the father of one of the boys killed, stood up and 
said to Bullet Proof: "Friend, it is well. It is better for a man to 
be killed in battle than to die a natural death. We all must die. 
Do not let the killing of these young men make you feel badly." 

Others said: "Let Bullet Proof not feel badly. We do not 
blame him for what has happened." 

Bullet Proof now tried to show his power by bringing to life 
the two men who had been killed. He walked around the bodies 
and grunted like a buffalo bull. Then he puflFed out his breath 
toward them, imitating the snorting of a bull, and afterward a 
bull's moaning. He ran toward them and stopped and stamped 
his foot. While he was doing these things Bobtailed Porcupine 
raised his hand over his head and drew up his leg a little, but 
nothing else happened. Bullet Proof then spoke to the people 
and said he could not make his medicine work as he wished and 
gave up all hope. The young men were afterw^ard buried on one 
scaffold in a large lodge. 

This was the Carpenter fight about which much has been said. 
It was a mere skirmish of no consequence, undertaken to enable 
Bullet Proof to show his power. 



XXII 

THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 

1868 

The peace commission appointed by Congress in July, 1867, 
made its report January 7, 1868. An interesting conclusion which 
it reached was that in all cases investigated by the commission 
of difficulties which existed with Indians at the date of the com- 
mission's creation, and for some years previous, the cause of the 
diflSculty was traced to the acts of white men — either civilians 
or soldiers. 

The treaties made at Medicine Lodge Creek were not ratified 
by the Senate until July, 1868, and were not proclaimed by the 
President until August, 1868 — the treaty with the Sioux not 
until February, 1869. The delay in ratifying these treaties put 
it out of the power of the authorities to do anything to locate the 
Indians on the lands arranged for them to occupy under the treaty 
stipulations. Besides, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes objected 
to settling down on the reservation selected for them because of 
the bitter water of many of the streams, it being in the gypsum 
belt between the southern line of Kansas and the Cimarron 
River. It did not help the Indians — and they did not know of 
it — that by the Act of July 20, 1868, Congress appropriated 
$500,000 to be expended under the direction of General Sherman 
in carrying out treaty stipulations; that is, in preparing homes, 
furnishing provisions, tools and farming utensils, and subsistence 
for those tribes with which treaties had been made and not yet 
ratified. General Sherman assigned Generals Harney and Hazen 
to the two military districts which he had established, the latter 
being given control of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and 
Comanches, and perhaps other bands. To the use of General 
Hazen $50,000 was allotted. 

Meantime there was some disorder on the plains, and some 
raiding by young men who had started north on the war-path 
against the Pawnees and had committed some outrages on the 
Saline River. 

287 



288 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The invasion of the country by white people had driven off 
the buffalo, and, according to Colonel Wynkoop, the Indians 
were starving. At this time the massacre of the Cheyennes and 
Arapahoes at Sand Creek was less than four years distant, and 
was still fresh in their minds, while the attack on the village on 
Pawnee Fork and its destruction by Hancock was only a year 
old. General Sherman and General Sheridan, neither of whom 
had been enough in contact with Indians of the plains to know 
anything about them or their methods of thought, seem to have 
determined that they must be punished. This was a common 
feeling in those days, the military officers seeming to forget that 
before Indians could be punished they must be caught, and that 
before they could be caught they would have every opportunity 
to commit enormous injuries in the way of killing people and 
destroying property. 

About the middle of October, General Sheridan was authorized 
to go ahead with his proposed work of punishing the Indians, 
and about the 6th of November, 1868, he left Fort Hays to 
join his forces at Bear Creek. It was reported that a million 
rations had been provided for the troops, and a large supply of 
extra horses taken along. At that time a large number of In- 
dians, all of them at the time peaceful, were camped on the Washita 
River, not very far from old Fort Cobb.^ The village of Black 
Kettle — about seventy-five lodges — was the farthest west of 
these camps on the Washita. Below him was a large village of 
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and below them the Kiowa s and 
Comanches. Before this the governor of the State of Kansas 
had declared that Kansas would do her part in punishing the 
Indians, and the militia regiment, known as the Nineteenth Kan- 
sas, had been enlisted for this purpose.^ 

1 Hazen says the Indians were encamped on the Washita eighty miles 
above Fort Cobb. Black Kettle and other chiefs came in to see him and to 
ask what they ought to do, but it was the same old story of divided author- 
ity, and Hazen had to tell them he had no power to offer them protection. 
He says Custer attacked them the very next day after they reached their 
camps, following this talk with him. Report Secretary of Interior, 1869-70, 
pp. 830 et seq. 

* The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry was commanded by Governor Crawford 
in person. He says he resigned the governorship to take part in this cam- 
paign. Delayed by severe snow storms he did not reach Camp Supply with his 
command until November 26. Crawford, Kansas in the Sixties, pp. 322-4. 



THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 289 

At Camp Supply, which Sheridan reached November 21, he 
found General Sully engaged on the work of the post, but the 
Kansas militia had not made its appearance. The weather was 
tempestuous, very cold and snowy, but the horses of the Seventh 
Cavalry were in good condition, and that regiment was ready 
for service. On the morning of November 23, General Sheridan 
ordered General Custer to set out, with the idea of looking for 
Indians. A few days later took place the Battle of the Washita — 
commonly spoken of as a great victory. 

The story from the point of view of the troops is told in Gen- 
eral Custer's report to Sheridan, which has been printed many 
times.^ It is claimed that one hundred and three warriors were 
killed and fifty-three women and children captured.^ As usual, 
there were many women and children killed. An Indian was an 
Indian and always good to shoot at. The village w^as captured 
and burned. The troops lost Major Elliot, Captain Hamilton, 
and nineteen enlisted men killed, three officers and eleven en- 
listed men wounded. The Indians from the lower camps came 
up toward Black Kettle's village, perhaps to fight, perhaps with 
the purpose of saving the women and children, but Custer scarcely 
waited for them, and withdrew without a collision with this larger 
force. Ben Clark, who was in the fight, stated that when the 
first people appeared from the lower villages General Custer or- 
dered Major Elliot to take a few men, and disperse those Indians. 
Elliot set out to do this, but found the Indians too many to dis- 
perse, and was soon driven up a side ravine. Here his force was 
surrounded, and the men turned loose their horses, and got into 
a hollow where they lay in tall grass so that the Indians could 
see only the smoke from their carbines. Before long they were 
all killed. 

The Indians say that from Camp Supply, whence Custer's 
command started, it went up Wolf Creek to a point about eighteen 

' Record of Engagements with Hostile Indians, p. 15. 

^ In April, 1869, several Cheyennes, including Red Moon, Little Robe, 
Minimic (Eagle Head), and Grey Eyes, had a talk with Special Agent Colyer 
and General Grierson at Camp Wichita and stated that the Cheyenne loss 
was 13 men, 16 women, and 9 children. Report of Secretary of Interior, for 
1869-70, p. 525. Hazen in his report says (p. 823) the Arapahoes had had 
two men killed, the Comanches one. He does not say the Kiowaa had any 
killed. 



290 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

miles above Supply. From Wolf Creek Custer crossed over by 
way of the Antelope Hills to the South Canadian River, following 
the trail made by a war party that had been raiding on the Smoky 
Hill River. The snow was nearly two feet deep and the trail was 
easily followed from the point where the Osage scouts had found 
it on Wolf Creek. As the soldiers travelled along, they found 
buffalo along the South Canadian, and some were killed for the 
uses of the command. 

The Indians whose trail Custer was following had passed along 
only the day before. Some of the Cheyennes were going to Black 
Kettle's village on the Washita, and some to other Cheyenne 
villages which were down below. When they reached the Cana- 
dian one party crossed, and went on south by the Antelope Hills, 
while the other party kept on down the river, each group wishing 
to go directly to the village where each belonged. 

Bear Shield and his party, who had gone down the river, 
camped five or six miles below the Antelope Hills, and the next 
morning when about to start on they heard shooting up the river. 
One of the party, named Wood, said: "One of you men had 
better go up on that hill and look back and see what you can see. 
To me those guns sound like the guns of soldiers.'.' "No," said 
Red Nose, "it must be that other party. They have stopped 
somewhere, and have found buffalo, and are killing some." So 
the Indians did not take the trouble to go up on the hill to look 
back to see who was doing the shooting. Bear Shield and his 
party went on, and that night reached the village on the Washita 
below Black Kettle's village. 

The party with which Crow Neck was went on over toward 
Black Kettle's village. They struck the Washita about fifteen 
miles above the village, and seeing where the camp had just 
moved down the river, followed the trail, and reached home that 
night. At the point where they reached the Washita, Crow Neck 
left a worn-out horse, and the next afternoon, thinking that by 
this time the animal would be rested, he went back to get it. 
When he had come almost to the place where he had left the 
horse, he saw something coming over the hills, a long line of 
people or animals, and being afraid that these were soldiers he 
turned back to the village without getting his horse. When he 
reached the camp he said to Bad Man, in whose lodge he was 



THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 291 

"stopping: "I believe I saw soldiers going over the hill to the 
river when I went to get my horse. They were either soldiers or 
buffalo; at all events, I was frightened and did not get my horse. 
You will do well to get in your horses this afternoon, and to-mor- 
row morning to move away. I am afraid that perhaps soldiers 
are coming." Bad Man got in his horses, as advised. 

What Crow Neck had seen was Custer's command marching 
over from the Canadian to the Washita. It was during that 
night that Custer made the march through the snow and cold, 
and the next morning he attacked the village. 

When the firing began many of the women and children 
rushed out of the village and down into the bed of the stream, 
and tried to hide there. Black Kettle and his wife were killed 
close together in the village. The Indians who could do so hur- 
ried down the stream or crossed it, and sought refuge in the hills. 
I\l33t of those killed were shot in the valley of the stream, close 
to it, and practically all the women and children who were killed 
were shot while hiding in the brush or trying to run away 
through it. Many women and children ran into the river, and 
waded down through the water, waist or breast deep, and by 
keeping close under the banks escaped the shots of the soldiers, 
who were riding along the bluffs, and on the bank above them. 
The weather was bitterly cold, and the people half froze, but in 
view of the greater danger of the soldiers, they thought little of 
that discomfort. Perhaps two miles below Black Kettle's village 
was a horseshoe bend of the Washita, about which the water was 
deep for the whole width of the stream, and it was impossible for 
a person to walk, even close under the banks. The Indians knew 
about this and warned the women and children of it, telling them, 
when they got to the beginning of this bend, to leave the river, 
and cut across the point, and then re-enter the water below. This 
they did. 

Among those who waded down the river was a large party of 
women and children behind whom followed three men ready to 
fight, a Kiowa and two Cheyennes named Packer (Sto ko' wo) 
and Little Rock (Ho han i no o')- When these people emerged 
from the water they were seen by Custer's command, and these 
may have been the Indians that ]Major Elliot is said to have 
been ordered to attack and disperse. Elliot went down to- 



292 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ward them with his force of fourteen or fifteen men. Farther 
down the river a number of Indians were gathered on the south 
side of the stream, and the orders may have referred to them. 
When Elhot got near to these women and children, the three men 
who were with them stopped behind to fight. 

About the middle of this cut-off across the point. Little Rock, 
who had a rifle and powder-horn, stopped and fired back at the 
soldiers and killed a horse under one of them. Almost at the 
same moment he himself was killed. The Kiowa jumped back 
to his body, snatched from him his rifle and powder-horn, and as 
he retreated began to load and fire. Packer and the Kiowa 
escaped and are alive to-day. 

A little farther along Buffalo Woman (Wo' ista) with three 
children became exhausted and stopped and sat down. When 
the soldiers came up, Elliot detailed the man who had been dis- 
mounted to take these prisoners back to the command. As they 
were going back toward the command a number of Indians were 
beginning to come in from the south. The woman saw them, 
and said to the soldier: "Wait a moment; these children's feet 
are pretty nearly frozen; let me wrap some rags about them, to 
protect them." Of course, it is not to be supposed that the sol- 
dier knew what she was saying, but he saw her tear pieces from 
her dress and bind up the feet of the children. While she was 
doing this, the Indians who were coming in had time to creep 
around and get between her and the command. Then, when 
she and the soldier started on, the Indians, who had recognized 
her, charged on them, and killed the soldier and took the woman 
away. Little Chief, of the Arapahoes, counted coup on the sol- 
dier with a hatchet. 

When the party of women and children, and the two men 
with them, had reached the bank of the river they climbed down 
and continued to wade through the water under the high bank. 
From time to time, as the Kiowa finished loading his gun, he 
crept up the bank and fired a shot at the soldiers. Once while 
he was doing this he saw a great crowd of Indians coming toward 
him from down the river, and a moment after saw Elliot's men 
turn off from the stream and ride up toward the hills. The 
Kiowa called to Packer, who also crept up on the bank, and just 
then they saw a crowd of Indians coming down the stream — Little 



THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 293 

Chief and his party who had cut off the soldier and rescued the 
woman and the three children. Then the Kiowa called out to 
the women and children and said : " They are charging from both 
sides. You can come up on the bank now." 

Meantime the Indians had surrounded Elliot's party. His 
men let their horses go and all lay down in the high grass to 
fight. Those who were looking on from a distance could see 
nothing but smoke and confusion. The shooting by the soldiers 
was constant. The Indians who had surrounded them crept 
closer and closer, and presently they could see that the soldiers 
were apparently not taking any aim, but were holding their car- 
bines up over the grass and shooting wildly. Meantime Packer, 
the Kiowa, and many of the women and children hurried to the 
place where the fight was taking place, but when they reached it 
the shooting was all over and the soldiers were dead. The fight 
must have been short. 

Among the Indians there was a difference of opinion as to 
who it was that counted the first coup on Elliot's men. Some 
people declare that it was Roman Nose Thunder, a Cheyenne, 
who rushed in among the troops and was shot in the arm, and 
others that it was an Arapaho, who also rushed in and was killed. 
Opinion seems to favor the Arapaho, w^ho was the only man killed 
by Elliot's force in the final battle. His name was Tobacco. 
He was the owner of a flat war club similar to the one owned by 
the Arapaho who was killed in the big fight with the Kiowas in 
183S. A man who carries one of these war clubs feels obliged to 
perform some great feat. Another Arapaho, Single Coyote, was 
mortally wounded here and died some time after. 

The Indians all say that the soldiers lay flat on the ground 
and did not rise up above the grass to take any aim. They seemed 
to depend for safety on concealment rather than on defense; and 
while they fired many shots these shots were not directed toward 
their enemies. Roman Nose Thunder, who rode close to and 
around them, could see them in the grass and shooting, but to 
him they appeared to be shooting upward and not toward the 
Indians. The Arapaho, who with many has credit for counting 
the first coup, rode immediately over them and was shot in the 
breast by an upward-directed ball. 

A number of the older and more prudent Indians thought that 



294 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

they would crawl up the ravine and get close shots at Elliot's 
men and began to do this. They moved slowly, on hands and 
knees, and before they had come near the troops the Indians 
made a charge and almost ran over them. 

In the killing of Elliot's men Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, 
and Apaches took part, so there was a great counting of coups, 
each tribe being at liberty to count the coups allowed by its own 
customs. In that way twelve coups might have been counted 
on each one of Elliot's men. 

It has been stated on supposed Indian authority that Elliot 
held the Indians off for two days, but this is clearly a misunder- 
standing of what the Indians said, for the fight was very short, 
probably much less than an hour. 

The people of Black Kettle's village who survived went down 
to the other villages below, in many cases being taken there by 
friends who came up with horses for their transportation. Custer 
very prudently made no move to attack the villages below, and 
the Indians thought that if he had done so his whole command 
would have been wiped out. It was not until about two weeks 
after the battle that Custer's command returned to the scene to 
look after the remains of Elliot and his party, who were found 
close together at the place where they were killed. 

After the Washita fight the tribes which had been camped to- 
gether there withdrew to the Red River, and most of them camped 
on the north fork of the Red River.^ The captured women and 
children were taken to Fort Hays, Kansas, but before long an old 
woman named Red Hair was sent out to find the Cheyennes. 
About this time Little Robe, a Cheyenne, and Black Eagle, a 
Kiowa, went into Fort Cobb to see what terms they could get if 
their people surrendered and to procure news of the Cheyenne 
prisoners. They saw General Hazen, who talked with them and 
advised them to wait for the coming of General Sheridan, who 
reached there a few days later. Sheridan told the Indians that 

^ Hazen says that immediately after the battle the Indians fled down 
the Washita toward Fort Cobb, alarming the whites there, who feared an 
attack. But before nearing the post the Cheyennes and Arapahoes turned 
off toward the south. The Kiowas, Apaches, and part of the Comanches 
came down and camped near the fort for protection. Later, when the troops 
came to Fort Cobb, the Kiowas became alarmed and ran away, but the troops 
seized their chiefs and compelled the Indians to return. 



296 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

they must give up the white prisoners they had; that he would 
send Custer to the Cheyenne camp for the prisoners, and that 
the chiefs must go back and warn their people that Custer was 
coming, so that the Indians would not fight him. He told them 
that the Cheyenne prisoners would be given up in the summer 
at Fort Supply, and advised the Cheyennes and Arapahoes to 
go in there and surrender. 

Custer's story is somewhat different. He says the Indian 
woman and an Apache chief named Iron Shirt were sent to the 
Cheyennes; that Iron Shirt^ returned alone and said that two 
chiefs would soon be in to talk. A few days later Little Robe and 
Yellow Bear,^ "second chief of the Arapahoes," came into Fort 
Cobb and said their people were talking of coming in and would 
send a runner with the news of their purpose in a few days. 
Custer says he waited but no messengers came, so, with forty men, 
he and the two chiefs set out. They went to the Arapaho vil- 
lage and persuaded that tribe to come in, but the Cheyennes did 
not come. In March Custer, with eleven troops of the Seventh 
Cavalry and ten of the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, set out to look 
for the Cheyennes. He moved from the neighborhood of Fort 
Cobb, where the troops had been nearly all winter, toward the 
Red River, and striking a trail followed it to the north fork of the 
Red River, where in the middle of March he found the Cheyennes 
on a timbered stream. Custer rode out ahead of his command 
with an orderly and was met by some chiefs, including Medicine 
Arrow.2 The Indians say that Custer was brought into the camp 
and to the medicine arrow lodge, where he sat down under the 
medicine arrows, and the keeper of the arrows lit a pipe and 
held it while Custer smoked, and while Custer was smoking 
Medicine Arrow told him in Cheyenne that he was a treacherous 
man and that if he came there with a bad purpose — to do harm 
to the people — he would be killed with all his men. Then the 
arrow keeper with a pipe stick loosened the ashes in the pipe and 
poured them out on the toes of Custer's boots, to give him bad 
luck. 

The Indian was not far wrong as to Custer's intention, for 

* Both these men signed the treaty of Medicine Lodge. 
2 So called by the whites. His Cheyenne name was H6 h5 ne vi tihk 
tan uh", Rock Forehead. 



THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 297 

Custer says that while he was smokhig this pipe he was planning 
how to surround the camp and attack or capture it. However, 
he now learned that there were two white women in the camp, so 
he did not dare attack until he could secure them. Custer says 
that when his troops approached the Indians fled from their 
village and made toward Little Robe's camp, which was some 
distance off. He says that he caused to be seized Big Head and 
Dull Knife, Dog Soldier chiefs, and two other men, whom he held 
as hostages. He then sent word to the Indians to return and take 
away their lodges if they chose, and many did so. After waiting 
here a few days for the delivery of the white prisoners, he told 
them that if the prisoners were not given up on the following day, 
he would hang the Cheyennes he held. The following afternoon 
the women were given up. 

Bent says that while the Indians were making a friendly visit 
to Custer's camp they heard the officer give a loud command, 
and the soldiers all seized their guns and attempted to surround 
the Indians. All got away except three, whom Custer held and 
sent to Fort Hays, where they were imprisoned with the Chey- 
enne women. Afterward two of these men. Slim Face, eighty 
years old, and Curly Hair, fifty, were killed by the guards. There 
seems to be some confusion about the men who were captured.^ 
They are the three who were photographed and whose picture 
has been printed in a multitude of books on the early West, with 
a great many captions. The names are differently given by dif- 
ferent people. E hyoph'sta says they were Younger Bear, Chief 
Comes in Sight, and Island. Bent gives the name of the man 
Island as Lean Man, and old Two Moon, of the Northern Chey- 
ennes, identifies the picture as that of the brother of his mother. 

E hyoph'sta tells the same story as that given by Bent. These 
three men, she says, went in to make peace. They were sur- 
rounded by the soldiers, captured, and their pictures were taken. 
Afterward they were killed.^ 

1 For another account see Report of Secretary of Interior, 1860-70, pp. 
521, 525, where the men arrested are said to have been young men. They 
were middle-aged or old men. 

2 E hyoph'sta says that Island was her uncle. She beUeved, in 1912, 
that she was eighty years old. She died in August, 1914, while on a visit to 
the Southern Cheyennes at Oklahoma. The picture above referred to was 
taken at Fort Dodge, Kansas, March 13, 1869. 



298 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Custer, with the two rescued white women and the "three 
chiefs" he had captured, marched back to Camp Supply. Soon 
after this the Cheyennes came in and settled down at Supply. 
In the South there was no more fighting between the Cheyennes 
and the whites, untU 1874. 

In Black Kettle, White Antelope, and Yellow Wolf, all old 
men, who were killed by the whites, we have three examples of 
high patriotism. These men were constant workers among the 
Indians in behalf of peace with the white people. They did this 
not because they loved the white people, from whom they had 
received nothing good, but because they loved their own tribe, 
and wished to guide it in paths that would be for the tribe's 
greatest advantage. White Antelope and Yellow Wolf were 
killed at Sand Creek, and Black Kettle four years later, when 
Custer attacked his vUlage on the Washita. Black Kettle was a 
frank, good man, who did not hesitate to expose himself to any 
danger if he thought that his tribe might be benefited thereby. 
Notwithstanding the attacks made on different parties of Chey- 
ennes by troops in Colorado, Black Kettle was quite willing to 
visit Governor Evans in Denver. Before and after Sand Creek 
he consistently talked and acted for peace, and his last words in 
this behalf were spoken to General Hazen only a few days before 
he was killed in the village on the Washita. He was the first 
of the Cheyenne chiefs to dare to attend the meetings of the 
peace commission at the treaty of Medicine Lodge, in 1867. 
Taught by past experience — at Sand Creek and on Pawnee Fork 
— the other Cheyennes feared to present themselves at a place 
where there was a large number of troops and where they might 
be attacked without warning. 

Black Kettle was a striking example of a consistently friendly 
Indian, who, because he was friendly and so because his where- 
abouts was usually known, was punished for the acts of people 
whom it was supposed he could control. 



XXIII 

BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS 

1869 

As so often said, the upper waters of the Republican River, 
near where the states of Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska come 
together, had always been a great buffalo country. For this 
reason they were a favorite camping-ground for the plains In- 
dians, of whom, between 1860 and 1870, some bands of Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes, and Sioux were hostile. 

In the early summer of 1869 General Eugene A. Carr set out 
from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, with the Fifth Cavalry, ac- 
companied by a battalion of Pawnee scouts, for the Republican 
River. Diu-ing the first days of July General Carr's command 
was camped on what the Cheyennes call Cherry Creek, which 
flows into the Republican from the northwest. At the same time 
the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers with some Sioux were camped on the 
head of the same stream. The Cheyennes learned of the pres- 
ence of the troops and attacked them in the night, trying to drive 
off their horses. Owing to the readiness and keenness of the 
Pawnees this attack was not successful. During the Cheyenne 
charge on Carr's camp the horse ridden by Yellow Nose fell with 
him, and Yellow Nose was thrown and lost his horse. No one 
noticed the occurrence, but a little later, as the Cheyennes were 
returning to their camp, they found with them a loose horse. 
Yellow Nose was out for two nights and then came into the camp. 
That same day the Cheyenne village — Dog Soldiers under Tall 
Bull, and a number of Sioux — moved over toward what was later 
called Summit Springs, under the White Butte.^ The stream 
which runs southeastwardly from Summit Springs is called White 
Butte Creek. 

It was at this place that in 1864 Big Wolf and his family had 
been killed by Dunn's soldiers. 

* Wohk po omin o I nos, White Butte. 
299 



300 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The first night the Indians camped among the sand hills on 
the divide, and the next morning moved over to Summit Springs. 
They purposed to cross the South Platte that day, but the chief, 
Tall Bull, told them that the streams were up, and that it would 
be just as well to wait there for a couple of daj^s, so that the water 
might fall and their horses might rest. Tall Bull said: "We will 
stop here for two days; then we will rush across the South Platte 
and go up to the rock where we starved the Pawnees." This 
is Court House Rock. 

Tall Bull sent six young men to the river to learn about the 
crossing. When they reached it they stripped themselves and 
their horses and rode into the water, expecting to find it very deep, 
but the water was not so high as they had expected. It ran only 
up to about the middle of the horses' shoulders. After the 
young men had crossed, some remained on the north side while 
others went back to search for the ford which was most shallow. 
Those who stayed on the north side cut willow poles, and when the 
ford had been selected they went across the river, sticking up these 
poles in the sand in order to mark the crossing, so that when the 
women should come the next morning they would be able to cross 
more easily. When they returned to the camp they reported 
that the river was not high. 

It was shortly after the last attack on the troops that Cap- 
tain North with some Pawnees discovered a group of Indian 
buffalo hunters returning to their village. The camp's exact 
location was not seen, but it was evidently near. When the troops 
took the trail, among the tracks was seen the print of a woman's 
shoe, evidence that the Indians had a white captive. The troops 
travelled faster than the Indians, and the afternoon of the second 
day camped where the Indians had spent the previous night, 
fresh antelope heads showing that the camp had been abandoned 
for not more than twelve or fifteen hours. Here General Carr 
determined to take some of his best mounted men and pursue 
the Indians, leaving his wagon-train to follow. 

On Sunday, July 11, the command started about four o'clock, 
and at eight came to a point where the trail split into three forks. 
General Carr took the left-hand trail, to the northwest, and with 
him were sent a white sergeant of the Pawnee battalion and ten 
Pawnees. Colonel Royal took the right-hand trail, with William 



BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS 301 

Cody. Major Frank North and his brother, Captain Luther 
North, with twenty-five of the best mounted Pawnees, took the 
middle trail. They rode faster than the others, and got some dis- 
tance ahead of them. The Pawnee scouts with General Carr 
found the Indian village, and one of them was sent to overtake 
the party on the middle trail. He reached them a little after noon, 
and they started across the hills at a gallop and joined General 
Carr's command, where he was waiting behind a ridge of hills. 
The Pawnee scouts said the Indian camp was not in sight, but 
that they could see horses on the hills. After resting their horses 
for a few minutes, General Carr ordered the charge. The Pawnees 
were fairly well mounted, and took the lead. When they reached 
the hill overlooking the camp, Major North was fifty yards in 
advance of his brother, who was three hundred yards ahead of 
the main body of the scouts. At the top of the hill they saw 
some Indians, who ran back into a ravine, and then shot at Cap- 
tain North. The Pawnees charged dowTi into the village and the 
cavalry came galloping past, turned to the left and rode on past 
the village, perhaps with the idea of surrounding it. The Indians 
of the village were running in all directions. They were completely 
surprised, and before they fully took in the situation the troops 
were in the village. The day was warm and pleasant, and the 
Indians were sitting about in the shade of the lodges. At the ap- 
pearance of the troops they rushed to get their horses, and on foot 
and on horseback scattered like birds in every direction. 

So far as known, the first man who saw the troops was Little 
Hawk, but he was far away from the camp hunting antelope, 
and was riding a slow horse and could not get to the camp in time 
to warn the Indians. In fact, the troops reached the village be- 
fore he could do so, and when he met a number of escaping Chey- 
ennes he joined them. 

Two Crows was sitting in the lodge talking when he heard 
someone outside exclaim: "People are coming." He paid no 
attention to the call, but continued his conversation, and pres- 
ently, without any warning, shooting began to sound close to the 
camp. All rushed out of the lodge and saw the Pawnees charging 
up and down on the nearby hillside, and firing into the camp. 
At first some of the people thought that these Indians were the 
advance messengers of a Sioux war party that had been out and 



302 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

were returning with scalps, but in a moment or two the soldiers 
began to pour over the hill. Many of the Indians had their 
horses tied up in camp and in a few moments a number of them 
had mounted. These took women and children on behind them 
and started to run away. The troops appeared on the east side 
of the village, and on the west side, and presently began to come 
over the hill from the north. Only the south side was open for 
the Cheyennes to get away. IMeantime there was the confusion 
that always exists in a surprise attack on an Indian village. 
Horses were running in every direction; people were trying to 
catch their horses, and were springing on their backs, and many 
others were running away on foot, some toward the south and 
others to hiding-places in the bluffs. 

Two Crows started on foot, running as hard as he could. As 
he started he picked up a rope, a bridle, and pistol, and his medi- 
cine war club, which he afterward threw away. As he ran he 
heard hoof-beats behind him, and looking back saw coming a 
herd of loose horses, followed by a Cheyenne, named Plenty of 
Bull Meat. Two Crows called to him, saying: "Turn the horses 
toward me," and as they came up to him Two Crows saw in the 
lead a fine black horse belonging to Tall Bull, which he knew 
as a good and gentle horse. As it ran by him. Two Crows ran 
fast by its side and made a cast with his rope, which by good 
luck fell over the horse's head. He had just time to slip the bridle 
on the horse, when close behind came a party of charging Pawnees. 
By this time two more Cheyennes had joined them. 

Presently they overtook four women riding double, on two 
horses, and an old man, and immediately behind them were five 
Pawnees shooting at them. The Pawnee horses were tired out, 
and they could barely gallop. The old man with these women 
called out: "Young men, turn about and come behind these women, 
and whip up their horses and help them to get along." Two 
Crows and Plenty of Bull Meat turned and rode behind the 
women and whipped up their horses, which then ran much faster. 
The women were so frightened that they seemed not to have 
thought of urging their horses forward. 

They drove the women forward, and with them the old man. 
He had a gun, which he did not use, expecting if his horse gave 
out to get off and fight on foot. Presently they overtook an old 



BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS 303 

woman on foot leading a horse. When they overtook this woman, 
they recognized her as a very old woman who ordinarily wore the 
old-fashioned Suhtai woman's dress. They tried to help her up 
on her horse, but they could not do it and the Pawnees were 
so close behind them that they did not dare to dismount to lift 
her. For a little while they tried to fight for her, but when the 
Pawnees got quite close they left her and rode on, A little farther 
along they came upon two Sioux women running on foot, but they 
were obliged to go on, and the Pawnees killed them. 

Still farther along they came to a Cheyenne woman with two 
little children, a boy and a girl, running hard, and there they did a 
bad thing. They stopped and fought for a time, trying to turn 
the Pawnees, but could do nothing, and rode on, and the Pawnees 
killed the three. They ought at least to have picked up the little 
children and carried them away with them and saved them. 

They went on farther, but after this they saw no people on 
foot. An old Sioux woman's horse fell with her, and she was 
thrown off and killed by the Pawnees, 

At this time about twenty-five or thirty more Pawnees came 
up and a little later Two Crows and Plenty of Bull Meat, Lone 
Bear and Pile of Bones, who had good horses and were fixed for 
fighting, saw down below them a woman on a horse going very 
slowly. Lone Bear called out to the others : " Now, we must stop 
here and fight for this woman. You two must do your best. 
Go down there and help her. We will stay behind and fight 
these people off." 

Three Pawnees who had been following the woman were quite 
close to her, shooting at her. Two Crows and Plenty of Bull Meat 
rode down to her and whipped her horse and turned it up into the 
hills, while the three Pawnees rode back toward their fellows. 
Then Two Crows and Plenty of Bull Meat rode back toward Lone 
Bear, but before they got to him the Pawnees had shot him and 
Pile of Bones, and they had fallen off their horses. The Pawnees 
had dismounted and were scalping the two men. They were 
also throwing up into the air the war bonnets that the men had 
worn. The Pawnees did not attempt to follow Two Crows and 
Plenty of Bull Meat. These two said: "It is useless for us to 
stay here any longer," and they rode away as fast as they could. 
They were riding off when on a sudden they met Bad Heart with 



304 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

six other men, and told him what had happened to Lone Bear 
and Pile of Bones; that they were lying over there where they 
could see the Pawnees standing. 

Bad Heart said to them: "Come on, now; let us ride back and 
see our friends." The nine men started toward the Pawnees, 
who by this time had turned and were riding back to the troops. 
When the Cheyennes got near the Pawnees they charged them, 
but the Pawnees' horses were exhausted and could do no more 
than walk, and presently two of the Pawnees jumped off their 
horses and started to run. Two Crows tried to ride around the 
abandoned ponies and drive them off, but one of them kicked up 
behind and struck him in the shin and kicked his horse in the 
neck. The Cheyennes rode up to where Lone Bear and Pile of 
Bones were lying and saw that they had been scalped and cut to 
pieces. 

Red Cherries, a Northern Cheyenne, was in the camp with 
his wife and his little baby. Some Cheyennes who had been to 
war in the South and had captured a lot of mules had come to 
the camp and told them that soldiers were on their trail, and that 
with the soldiers were some Pawnees. After two or three moves, 
when they had camped at Summit Springs, Red Cherries said 
to his wife: "We will do well to go north again. These people 
seem to be dodging about from place to place all the time." He 
and his wife had saddled up and started, but met the approaching 
soldiers and soon after the camp was attacked. The young 
people, both Sioux and Cheyennes, left the camp and ran away 
over the prairie, but the old people ran to a deep ravine to hide 
there. Among them were Tall Bull, the chief. Black Sun, and 
Heavy Furred Wolf. Black Sun had been wounded through the 
body in a fight, but was now up and able to be about. Red 
Cherries went to the outer edge of the camp, and stopped there 
and dismounted and turned his saddle-horse loose. The Pawnees 
were already in the camp. A number of young men who rode by 
him asked him to get on behind them and escape, but to each one 
he said: "No, my friend, I shall stop here in this camp." It was 
a pretty hard place, for Pawnees and soldiers charged through the 
camp, following the people. Red Cherries walked around the 
edge of the camp, and the bullets struck all about him, close to 
his body. Presently Tall Sioux rode up to him and said: "Jump 



BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS 305 

on behind me and come away; take pity on your little baby; do 
not leave it fatherless." 

"No, my friend," said Red Cherries, "I shall stay here." 

When Tall Sioux received this answer he rode off. The sol- 
diers were in line on two sides of the camp shooting. Presently 
Tall Sioux again rode up to him and said: "Friend, take pity on 
your wife and child; listen to what I say." 

As Tall Sioux rode up to him it seemed that all the guns went 
off at once, opening and firing. The sound was continual. 

Then Red Cherries said: "My friend, you have come for me 
twice and I will listen to you." He jumped on behind his friend, 
and they rode off over the hill. 

After they had got beyond the ridge they stopped, and fought 
and then retreated, and presently the firing stopped. A little 
later from far off in the distance they saw five Pawnees come in 
sight over the hill. The two Cheyennes supposed that these 
Pawnees were alone and charged down on them, when suddenly 
coming over the hill were seen more Pawnees, and a line of sol- 
diers. A good deal farther on Red Cherries found a place where 
some women and children had come together. His wife and 
child were there. Afterward his wife was killed and his mother- 
in-law, and her two little children. All of the camp that was 
left later crossed the Platte,^ and did not stop travelling until 
they had reached the Sioux camp on White River. 

Major North and his brother Captain Luther H. North, with 
a party of Pawnees and a few soldiers, had surrounded the ravine 
into which a number of people, and a woman and child had fled. 
One of the men was Tall Bull. He had run to his horse, and put- 
ting his wife and child on it had mounted behind them and sought 
this shelter. When he reached the ravine he found a place for 
the wife and child where they would not be exposed to fire, and 
returning to the mouth of the ravine stabbed the horse behind the 
fore leg. This was where he intended to die. 

The mouth of the ravine was narrow and its banks almost 
perpendicular. The Cheyennes cut hand and foot holds in these 
sides so that they could climb up to the top, and discharge their 
guns, and in this way for some time they kept the attacking party 
at bay. 

* They crossed the Platte August 7 — a month after the fight. 



306 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Some of Major North's Pawnees had crept up within about 
twenty paces of the ravine on one side, and were thus in a posi- 
tion to fire at the Indians climbing up the opposite bank. 

While this was going on an Indian climbed the bank nearest 
to the soldiers, and showing only his head and shoulders fired a 
shot at Major North and his brother, who were galloping toward 
the bank. The Indian then lowered his head. Major North 
marked the spot where the Indian's head had disappeared, dis- 
mounted and handed his bridle-rein to his brother, telling him to 
ride away. He believed that at the sound of the galloping hoofs 
the Indian might raise his head again to learn the result of his 
shot. Major North dropped on his knee and taking a knee rest 
aimed the rifle at the spot where the head had been. A moment 
later he saw the Indian's rifle appear over the edge of the bank, 
and then the head rise as the man prepared to fire. Major North 
pulled the trigger, and the Indian fell back without discharging 
his gun, leaving the rifle cocked and ready for shooting on top of 
the bank. The ball had entered his forehead. Later in the day 
the dead chief Tall Bull was found in the ravine directly under 
this spot. 

Shortly after this another head appeared at the same spot — 
the head of a woman. She reached the top of the bank, pulled 
her little six-year-old girl after her, and making signs that she 
wished to talk, walked to Major North, and passed her hands 
over him, asking him for pity. Major North sent her to the rear, 
where she would be safe. She proved to be the wife of Tall Bull. 
She told him that there were still seven Indians alive in the ravine. 
These were afterward killed, thirteen having already been killed 
at the head of the ravine. 

The two captive white women in Tall Bull's camp were said 
to have been shot by Tall Bull at the time of the attack. One 
of them was killed. They were Germans and could not speak 
English. 

The reports tell of the capture of the village, the killing of 
fifty-two Indians, and the capture of eighteen women and chil- 
dren, with something like four hundred horses and mules. Noth- 
ing is said about how many of the fifty-two killed were women 
and children. 

The day after the fight all the Indian lodges, robes, camp 



BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS 307 

equipage, clothing, and dried meat were brought together and 
burned. 

Among the plunder found in the village were many articles 
obtained from white settlers on the Saline, and a considerable 
amount of gold and silver money, together with some jewelry. 
These things passed into the hands of the soldiers and scouts, 
and during the march toward Fort McPherson an effort was made 
to collect all the money captured in the village in order to give 
it to Mrs. Weichel, the rescued captive. The Pawnees cheer- 
fully gave up $600 in $20 gold pieces, that they had taken, while 
from the soldiers only about $300 were collected. About $600 
besides this had been found in the village, which the white sol- 
diers concealed. 



XXIV 

FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS 

1874 

Up to within a few years there was on the south fork of the 
Canadian River, in Hutchinson County, Texas, an adobe ruin 
long known as Adobe Walls. In 1864, it was the scene of a fight 
with Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches by New Mexican troops 
under Kit Carson, and again, in 1874, a group of southern In- 
dians attacked a large party of white buffalo hunters who had 
established themselves near this point. 

The history of Adobe Walls has never been written, but it 
has been conjectured to have been an old trading-post, perhaps 
buUt by the traders Bent and St. Vrain. 

Within a few years this supposition has been confirmed by 
George Bent, son of Colonel William Bent, who has given me 
the following account of this matter: 

Between 1864 and 1868 at different times Kit Carson and old 
John Smith told him that many years before William Bent sent 
a party from Bent's Fort down to the southeast to build a trading- 
post on the head of the South Canadian River for the purpose of 
trading with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches. Just when 
this took place is not known, but it seems altogether probable 
that it was before the year 1840 — perhaps before 1837, as sug- 
gested in an earlier chapter. Up to that time the Kiowas, Co- 
manches, and Apaches had been at bitter war with the Cheyennes 
and Arapahoes, some of whom were almost always about Bent's 
Old Fort, and the likelihood of meeting their enemies would 
naturally have prevented these more southern tribes from going 
there to trade. 

The post was built and some of Colonel Bent's best men were 
sent down there with goods, to start a trade. The men chosen 
were Carson, Smith, Murray, Maxwell, Fisher, and two Mexicans, 
a cook and a herder. 

308 



FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS 309 

John Smith stated that they were directed to trade chiefly 
for horses and mules. The party remained there for some time 
trading with Kiowas and Comanches, and got together quite a 
herd of horses and mules, which they corralled every night inside 
the fort. One day, however, while the horses were at pasture on 
the prairie, some Indians came down and ran them off, killing 
the Mexican herder. The men had only two or three mules left, 
and it was impossible to remain there without horses. They 
cached — buried — most of their goods; packed their ammunition 
and most valuable things on the animals, and at night started on 
foot for Bent's Fort. 

They had a hard and difficult march. It was dark, and the 
country was little known to them so that they were obliged to 
travel by direction, and their way led through great beds of 
cactus. All were shod with moccasins, and the thorns of the 
cactus penetrated the buckskin and caused them torture, so that 
Smith said that they suffered from fever from the inflammation of 
their feet. 

They had gone some distance, and daylight was just begin- 
ning to appear when Indians were seen coming. Murray, who was 
in charge, and had ordered during the night that no one should 
smoke, said: "Here they come, boys; bunch up those mules and 
the rest of you scatter out." 

The Mexican held the ropes of the mules, and the others got 
around them. An Indian carrying a lance charged up boldly, 
and when close to them Murray and Fisher both fired, and the 
Indian fell. Two more Indians were killed and three or four 
horses. Murray had told the men not to fire unless they had 
quite sure shots. "If we make good work of it," he said, "they 
will leave us." 

It turned out as he had said, and presently the Indians drew 
off out of rifle-shot, and had evidently had enough. INIurray 
stepped out in front of the animals, in plain sight, and made signs 
to the Indians inviting them to come on, but they declined to 
do so. Murray went out and scalped the nearest Indian, and 
the others went away. 

Old Tohausen (Little Mountain), the Kiowa chief, afterward 
told the white men that the people who took the horses were 
Mountain (Jicarilla) Apaches, and that those who attacked the 



310 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

men on the retreat were Comanches. On the other hand, George 
Bent heard from Anadarko in 1912 that the Indians who made 
the early morning attack were Kiowas. 

The Comanches were much irritated by the pushing southward 
of the hide hunters from the neighborhood of Fort Dodge, for it 
was well understood in 1873 and 1874 that no hunting should be 
done south of the Arkansas River. That was regarded as the 
Indian country, and the terms of the Medicine Lodge treaty pro- 
vided that white hunters should not cross that stream, which was 
patrolled at intervals by troops. So long as buffalo were plenty 
north of the Arkansas the hunters respected this feeling, but 
after buffalo got scarce the dead-line, in their estimation, was 
moved down to the Cimarron, where buffalo were found abun- 
dant, and when the great beasts were killed off there, they followed 
them still farther south. 

The Indians strongly objected to the farther movement south 
of the white hunters, realizing, of course, that the extermination 
of the buffalo meant starvation for themselves. 

In the spring of 1874 a Comanche medicine man announced 
that he had a power which would enable the Indians to overcome 
the whites. This man was generally believed in by all the southern 
tribes, including not a few of the Southern Cheyennes. Among 
the Cheyennes who believed in him were Medicine Water and 
Iron Shirt — brothers of Alights on the Cloud, who was killed in 
1852 — Gray Beard and many others. Little Robe, on the other 
hand, so soon as he heard of the threatened trouble moved his 
whole camp into the agency, and many other Cheyennes would 
have moved in had it not been that they were held in the outside 
camp by the soldiers of the various bands, chiefly the Bow String 
soldiers. 

That spring the Chej^ennes had been greatly troubled by white 
horse thieves, who had come down and run off many of their horses, 
taking them to the settlements where they sold them. In one of 
these cases the thieves were followed by some Indians under a 
son of Little Robe, but when they reached Dodge City they re- 
ceived no satisfaction, and starting back to their camp angry 
took some horses from some white men, got into a fight, and one 
was wounded. At this time there were a great many rough white 
men in the country peddling whiskey, wolfing, and hunting buffalo. 



FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS 311 

and many of them, if they had the opportunity, would not hesi- 
tate to run off horses belonging to anyone, red or white. 

White hunters killing buffalo for their hides had moved south 
to the South Canadian River and there established a settlement 
with a store, saloon, and blacksmith shop, a little west of Adobe 
Walls. 

The fight with the buffalo hunters at Adobe W^alls took place 
June 27, 1874, or almost exactly two years before the Custer 
fight on the Little Big Horn. Of the twenty-eight men and one 
woman at that time in the settlement, Billy Dixon was one, and 
in the account of his life, published in 1914, he tells the story of 
the fight as he saw it. 

The Indians supposed that it was their charge which awoke 
the buffalo hunters, but, as a matter of fact, a considerable num- 
ber of them had been aroused by the cracking of the ridge-pole 
in Hanrahan's saloon, and worked until morning propping it up. 
By the time the work was finished the sky was beginning to grow 
red in the east, and to Dixon and some of his companions it seemed 
hardly worth while to go to bed, so they prepared to make an early 
start. It was during the preparations for this start that the In- 
dians were seen at a distance charging in line. 

Most of the white men were still in the buildings when the 
Indians made their charge. Two freighters, the Shadier brothers, 
who had come in late the night before, were still asleep in their 
wagons and were killed. William Tyler was also killed early in 
the fight. DLxon says that with the Indians was a man who 
used a bugle, and that the Indians charged at the sound of the 
bugle. The white men, Dixon says, soon came to understand 
these signals and whenever the bugle sounded prepared for the 
charge. 

About the middle of the day the Indians grew discouraged 
and drew off out of shot. Within the next two or three days 
small parties came back once or twice to look over the hill at the 
settlement, but no further attack was made. However, the battle 
put an end for the time to the buffalo hunting in that section, 
and thus — though at a considerable loss to themselves — accom- 
plished the purpose of the Indians. 

A story of the fight told by Cheyennes who were present gives 
the Indian view: 



312 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

In the spring of 1874 a Comanche named I sa tai' announced 
that he had a medicine which would make useless the guns of 
the white people, and proposed that they should be exterminated. 
A Comanche carried the pipe to the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, 
Kiowas, and Apaches, and asked them to go with the Comanches 
and destroy the buffalo hunters who were gathering to hunt on 
the South Canadian and were making a settlement there. 

The Comanche reached the Cheyenne camp on the head of the 
Washita River, where the Cheyennes were then holding a medicine- 
lodge, made by Crazy Mule. The Comanche gave a great feast 
to the Cheyenne chiefs and chiefs of the soldier bands, and asked 
them to help him. 1 sa tai' prophesied, saying: "Those men 
shall not fire a shot; we shall kill them all." The Cheyennes 
accepted the pipe offered them by the Comanche. 

After the medicine-lodge was over, a large war party of 
Kiowas and Comanches came to the Cheyenne camp. They 
charged up to the camp circle and rode all about the circle, out- 
side and inside. Four men led the war party, and with these 
four men rode the medicine man, I sa tai', who was to make the 
guns of the hunters useless. Four other brave men brought up 
the rear. The soldiers of each society were singing their own 
songs. In the charging line were some Arapahoes. 

After the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches had made this 
charge the Cheyenne soldiers made a similar charge, and that 
evening all the soldiers of the different societies of each tribe, 
including the Cheyennes, danced around the camp circle. There 
was much excitement. Next morning the great war party set out 
for the Adobe Walls. The leaders went ahead early in the morn- 
ing, and at noon stopped for the others to overtake them, and 
they spent the night at that place. The next day they went on 
and all through the day men kept overtaking the party. The 
evening of the third day they began to paint themselves and their 
horses and to prepare their shields and all their war medicine 
so as to be ready the next morning to charge the buffalo hunters. 
Their camp was five or six miles from the Adobe Walls. 

Next morning the Indians all formed in line. The Comanche 
medicine man stood on a hill and to the right of the line. He was 
naked except for a cap or bonnet made of sage stems. Just about 
daylight he called on them to charge and all started. The noise 



FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS 313 

of the horses' hoofs was like thunder — so great that it awoke the 
buffalo hunters, who soon began to shoot through the windows. 
At this time and place they shot three of the attacking party, one 
Comanche and two Cheyennes. Stone Calf's son rode seventy- 
five yards before he fell from his horse. The other Cheyenne 
was named Horse Chief. The Comanche fell from his horse 
close to the door of the building. 

The buffalo hunters knocked holes in the walls of the houses 
to shoot through. The Indians charged about for some time and 
then got behind the stables and behind the stacks of buffalo-hides. 
After a time they realized that they could do nothing and about 
two o'clock they left the hunters. Six Cheyennes were killed: 
Horse Chief (Mo in'a am mi vih"). Stone Calf's son (Wohk pos'- 
its), Stone Teeth (Ho ho neVoh nln'), Coyote (O'kohm), Spots 
on the Feathers (Hohs'tai wut'), Walking on the Ground (Ho 
iv'sta mists ts). Three Comanches were killed, no Apaches and 
no Arapahoes, nine in all. After the fight a Cheyenne named 
Hippy seized the bridle of the Comanche medicine man and was 
going to quirt him, but the other Cheyennes said: "Let him go." 
He was disgraced. 

It was reported in July, 1912, that I sa tai' was still living 
at Fort Sill. He declared that his medicine would have been 
effective and the buffalo hunters would have been destroyed as 
promised except for the fact that that morning after they had 
started out to make the attack some Cheyenne killed a skunk, 
and in that way broke his medicine. 

Following their defeat by the buffalo hunters, and seeking re- 
venge for their losses, a party of Cheyennes under Medicine Water 
started on the war-path to the northeast, and on the Smoky Hill 
River massacred a party of emigrants — the Germaine family. 
They killed five of the nine members of the family, and captured 
four girls from sixteen years of age down to four or five. These 
girls were later all rescued, the two older ones being brought into 
the agency and given up by Stone Calf and the chiefs of his band 
in the spring of 1875. 

In September Colonel R. S. Mackenzie with seven troops of 
the Fourth Cavalry captured the villages of the Kiowas, Coman- 
ches, and Southern Cheyennes in a canyon near the Red River 
of Texas. The troops came down into the canyon at the very 



314 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

end of the camp, near where the Kiowa village was, and the Chey- 
ennes being at the upper end of the camp had time to jump on 
their horses and escape. A great many Kiowa and Comanche 
horses were captured, but the loss in horses by the Cheyennes 
was slight. At this time the Indians had been talking of going 
in and surrendering, but alarmed by this attack they turned about 
again and returned to the Staked Plains. 

Toward the end of the year there were various other small 
skirmishes, none of them of importance. Two of the smallest 
Germaine girls were with Gray Beard's band, and the smaller 
of the two being unable to ride a horse they were both left behind 
in charge of a young Indian. He took them up on a hillside and 
placed them on the ground on a buffalo-robe and left them, and 
when the troops came along they were recognized as children 
through the field-glasses and were rescued. Some of the military 
reports seem to infer that these children were captured from the 
Indians after a battle, but, as a matter of fact, they were set free. 
Billy DLxon in his Life^ speaks of this. The rescue seems to have 
taken place November 8, 1874. 

That autumn some war parties of young men who had been out 
came into the camps of Whirlwind and Little Robe at Darling- 
ton, Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. These Indians were in 
charge of Agent John D. Miles, who had been appointed in 1872. 
They were quiet and peaceable, living at the agency and having 
rations issued to them. Colonel Neal, with several companies of 
troops, was also camped near Darlington. 

Early in 1875 Wliite Horse, with the Dog Soldiers, came in 
and surrendered to the military, and a little later Stone Calf ap- 
peared with his village and also surrendered. These villages of 
Indians were sent up on the north fork of the Canadian River, 
about three miles above Darlington, and Captain Bennet, with 
his company of infantry, camped near them to act as a guard. 
The troops built dugouts and remained there through the winter, 
and the two villages of Indians were held as prisoners of war and 
rations were issued to them by the military. 

It was in early spring that Colonel Neal, on information given 
him by certain Mexicans, had all the male Indians drawn up in 

' Life and Adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas Panhandle, 
Guthrie, Oklahoma, 1914, p. 294. 



FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS 315 

line, and passing along the line arrested certain men whom the 
Mexicans pointed out and put them in the guard-house. There 
were about twenty-five of these, who were afterward sent to 
Florida and held there as prisoners. 

A few days after the arrest one of the Indians was brought 
out of the guard-house to be shackled with a ball and chain, but 
while the blacksmith was preparing to iron him he broke away 
from those who were holding him and ran for the camp. The 
soldiers shot at him and the balls went into the camp, striking 
the lodges and frightening the Indians there, who at once rushed 
out from the camp on the other side, crossed the river and ran 
into the sand hills, where they threw up breastworks and prepared 
to fight. This occurred about ten o'clock m the morning. 

There was considerable shooting through the day, part of it 
with a Gatling gun. Two of the Indians were killed outside the 
breastworks. The one who had broken away had been wounded. 
Two soldiers were also killed. Toward evening the firing ceased, 
but a guard was stationed around the sand hills to keep the In- 
dians from getting away during the night. Nevertheless, all the 
Indians slipped out and all went down to the camps of Little 
Robe and Whirlwind and remained there for some days. No 
attempt was made by the military to get them back, and after a 
little while the women in small parties went up and took down 
their lodges and transported their property down to the camps 
below, where they remained unmolested. 

Shortly afterward they were turned over to the Interior De- 
partment, and became a part of Agent INIiles's Indians. A day 
or two after the fight the prisoners still held in the guard-house 
were sent off at night to Fort Sill, and from there, with some 
Comanches and Kiowas, were sent to Florida, where they were 
held for five years. On the way, while passing through Missis- 
sippi, Gray Bear was killed by one of the guards. A number of 
the Indians died in Florida. Finally the survivors were returned 
to their home in the Indian Territory. Some of the younger men 
were persuaded by Captain Pratt to go to the Carlisle School, 
where they gained some knowledge of the English language 
before their return to the West. 



J 



XXV 

CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 

1876 

In 1874 General Custer led an expedition to the Black Hills of 
Dakota and prospectors who accompanied him discovered gold. 
The announcement of this jfind caused much excitement, and 
parties of prospectors at once began to lay plans for invading the 
hills. That region was then one of the few untouched hunting 
grounds left to the northern Indians, and certain species of game, 
as deer and bears, were very abundant there. 

During the year 1875 the Sioux Indians made active objec- 
tion to the incursions of miners into the Black Hills. Many 
parties were attacked, and not a few people were killed. The 
Government endeavored to purchase the Black Hills from the 
Indians and a number of groups of Sioux agreed to sell, but others 
refused. 

In the spring of 1876 the War Department determined to 
punish and reduce the hostile Indians who were living in Mon- 
tana, Wyoming, and North Dakota, and Generals Terry and 
Crook set on foot operations looking to this end. General Terry 
was to ascend the Missouri and Yellow^stone Rivers and from some 
favorable point there to work south, while General Crook was to 
operate from the south north and to cover the headwaters of the 
Powder, Tongue, Rosebud, and Big Horn Rivers. 

On May 29, with a strong column of about fifteen troops of 
cavalry and five companies of infantry. General Crook left Fort 
Fetterman for Goose Creek. On June 9, on Tongue River, the 
command was attacked by Indians and two men were wounded. 
The Indians, however, were easily driven off. Captain Bourke 
credits this attack to Crazy Horse, but, as a matter of fact, these 
Indians were Northern Cheyennes from the camp on the Rose- 
bud, at the mouth of the INIuddy. Led by Little Hawk, they had 
rushed over to Tongue River in the hope of driving off a lot of 
horses. The Cheyennes say that the soldiers met them with a 

316 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 317 

long rain of bullets, and they gave up the attempt and returned 
to their camp. 

On June 17, at the bend of the Rosebud, an important en- 
gagement took place. It is commonly spoken of as Crook's fight 
on the Rosebud, and was in fact a victory for the Indians. The 
Record of Engagements declares that Crook had less than one 
thousand men, and that the Indians were driven several miles in 
confusion, while a great many were killed and wounded in the 
retreat. The troops lost nine men killed and eighteen wounded, 
one of whom was Captain Guy V. Henry, who happily recovered. 

The official documents^ state that the scene of the attack 
was at the mouth of a deep and rocky canyon with steep timbered 
sides, and it is intimated that this was the reason for General 
Crook's retiring to his main supply camp to await reinforcements 
and supplies. 

I am familiar with the ground and have been over it more than 
once. The lay of the land scarcely bears out the description the 
reports give. The fight took place in a wide, more or less level 
valley, with high bluffs on either side. It is true that two or three 
miles below the battle-field the river bends sharp to the left and 
the valley becomes narrower, with high more or less wooded bluffs 
on either side, but, though varying somewhat, the width of the 
valley is for the most part a mile or two, and is nowhere, I think, 
less than half a mile. There is no "dangerous defile" such as is 
told of. There was no effort by the Indians to lead the troops into 
a trap. The ground was not suitable. 

It has long been well understood by those familiar with this 
fight that General Crook was thoroughly well beaten by the 
Indians, and that he got away as soon as he could. Considering 
the number of men engaged the losses were not heavy on either 
side. At the same time it was a hard battle. The story as told 
from the military point of view can be found in the Record of 
Engagements, in Captain Bourke's On the Border icith Crook, 
and in Finerty's Warpath and Bivouac. In the account given by 
the Cheyennes who fought in this engagement will be recognized 
a number of incidents spoken of by Bourke. 

The Indian narrative comes from several men, well known to 
me for many years, who took part in it. 

1 Record of Engagements, p. 52. 



318 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

The man who discovered the presence of the soldiers on the 
Rosebud was Little Hawk, the son of old Gentle Horse, who 
sixty or seventy years ago was one of the most famous of Chey- 
enne warriors. From the fact of this discovery it has been the 
duty of Little Hawk of late years, whenever the ceremony of the 
medicine-lodge has been held among the Northern Cheyennes, 
to go out and choose the centre pole for the medicine-lodge. 

The Cheyennes were camped on the stream now known as 
Reno Creek. In the early summer Little Hawk, then a leading 
warrior, called four young men, Yellow Eagle, Crooked Nose, 
Little Shield, and White Bird, and said to them: "Let us go out 
and see if we cannot get some horses from the white people." 
They started that night, passing through the Wolf INIountains, 
and then stopping to wait for daylight. 

When morning came they went on through the hills, and about 
midday reached the big bend of the Rosebud. As they went 
down into the Rosebud they saw a great herd of buffalo bulls, 
and Little Hawk said: "Now let us kill a bull and stop here and 
roast some meat." He killed one close to the stream and nearby 
found a nice spring of water. One of them started a fire, and they 
began to skin the buflPalo. Before the meat was cooked a large 
herd of cows came in sight. The young men said to Crooked Nose: 
" You stay here and roast this meat, while we go up to those cows 
and see if we cannot find a fatter animal." They went toward 
the cows, and after they had gone part way one of them happened 
to look back to where Crooked Nose was cooking, and saw that 
he was making motions to them from side to side, calling to them 
to come back. They thought no more about killing a fat cow, but 
turned their horses and rode down to him. 

When they reached him Crooked Nose said to them: "On 
that hill, by those red buttes, I saw two men looking over, and 
after looking a little while they rode up in plain sight, each one 
leading a horse. They rode out of sight coming toward us. I 
think they are coming in our direction — right toward us." 

Little Hawk said: "Saddle up quick. I think those men 
coming are Sioux; now we will have some fun with them"; for he 
thought that they could creep around and pretend to attack 
them, and so frighten them. The Sioux were their friends and 
allies. 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 319 

They saddled their horses and rode up a little gulch, and when 
they had gone a short distance Little Hawk got off his horse and 
crept up to the top of the hill and looked over. As he raised his 
head it seemed to him as if the whole earth were black with sol- 
diers. He said to his friends: "They are soldiers"; but he said it 
in a very low voice, for the soldiers were so near to them that he 
was afraid they would hear him speak. He crept down the hill 
and got on his horse, and Little Shield said: "The best thing we 
can do is to go back to where we were roasting meat. There is 
timber on the creek, and we can make a stand there." Little 
Shield spoke in a low tone of voice, and Little Hawk did not 
hear him say this, but started down the gulch as hard as he could 
go, and the others after him. As he was riding at headlong speed 
he lost his field-glasses, but he did not stop. He went down to 
the Rosebud and rode into the brush, and through it, up the stream. 
He left a good many locks of his hair in the bushes. While they 
were going up the creek they did not simply gallop; they just 
raced their horses as fast as they could go. Keeping on up the 
Rosebud in the timber and so out of sight of the troops, who had 
not yet reached the river, they came to a high butte about three 
miles above the soldiers. They had not yet been discovered. 
Here they stopped and looked back. They could see the soldiers 
still coming down the valley. If the Cheyennes had not killed 
the buffalo they would have kept on their way and would have 
ridden right into the soldiers. The buffalo bull saved their lives. 

When they left this round butte they rode on over the moun- 
tains toward the Little Big Horn River. After they had crossed 
the mountains, they passed along the foothills of the Wolf Moun- 
tains, and just as day began to break came to the camp, which 
had moved only a little way down Reno Creek. When they were 
near the camp they began to howl like wolves, to notify the people 
that something had been seen. They reached camp just at good 
dajdight. 

The people in the camp on Reno Creek had suspected that 
there were soldiers in the country, and some of the young men of 
the village had spent the night riding around the camp as if they 
were guards. Nothing had happened during the night, but now 
early in the morning they heard someone howling like a wolf, 
and when they heard this they knew that some discovery had 



320 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

been made. Young Two Moon — son of Beaver Claws and nephew 
of the chief Two Moon — rode toward the howHng as soon as he 
heard the sound and met the scouts coming in. 

Little Hawk said to the people: "Near the head of the Rose- 
bud, where it bends to turn down into the hills, we saw soldiers 
as we were roasting meat. I think there are many Indians with 
them, too. They may come right down the Rosebud. Get 
ready all the young men, and let us set out." 

All the men began to catch their horses and painted them- 
selves, put on their war bonnets, and then paraded about the camp, 
and then set out to meet the soldiers, going straight through the 
hills. 

Little Hawk led a party of men who went straight across 
through the Wolf Mountains. With young Two Moon's party 
were about two hundred men — Sioux and Cheyennes — and one 
woman, the sister of Chief Comes in Sight. When this party 
reached the mouth of Trail Creek, on the Rosebud, they were 
stopped by the Cheyenne soldiers, who had formed a line and 
would not let them go on up the stream, because Little Hawk 
had expressed the opinion that the soldiers were coming down 
the Rosebud River. 

On the west side of the Rosebud, near where William Row- 
land's place now is, is a high hill which commands a wide view, 
and to the top of this high hill four Indians, who were serving as 
scouts for the troops, had gone to look over the country to see if 
any Indians could be seen. From young Two IVIoon's party four 
men, two Sioux and two Cheyennes, were sent forward to this 
same hill to see if they could discover the troops, and were told 
if they found them to come back at once. Some time after these 
four scouts had started the main party moved on after them. 

The scouts sent out by the troops reached the top of this hill 
before the scouts sent by the Indians had passed out of the bottom. 
They saw the approaching Sioux and Cheyenne scouts, and began 
to fire at them. When the Sioux and Cheyennes who were farther 
down the Rosebud heard the shooting they rushed up the valley, 
and the scouts from the troops retreated over the high land, while 
the Indian scouts, having signalled their people that they had seen 
something, followed them toward the soldiers. The soldiers, 
hearing the firing, formed in line and prepared to fight. The 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 321 

rifles began to sound more to the right, and the Indians, leaving 
the bottom, cut across the hills toward the river above. 

When they reached the top of the hill, looking down into the 
valley of the Rosebud, they could see the soldiers following some 
Indians back into the hills. The soldiers were pretty strong and 
were fighting hard. The horses of the Indians were being wounded 
and falling as they climbed the hill. When the Sioux and Chey- 
ennes saw this they did not stop long on the high divide, but 
charged down on the soldiers, who stopped pursuing the other 
group of Indians and fell back. Little Hawk, with his party, 
who had been running away, then turned and charged back 
so that now there was a large body of Indians charging down on the 
soldiers. The sister of Chief Comes in Sight charged with the 
men. 

At first the Sioux and Cheyennes had seen only one body of 
troops, and supposed that all the soldiers were there together, 
but later, after the soldiers began to withdraw up the creek, they 
learned that more troops were up above. The Cheyennes believe 
that the Indian scouts from the troops intended to lead the pur- 
suing Indians down between the two groups of soldiers, but made 
a mistake and went down the wrong ridge. These scouts were 
supposed to be Pawnees and Snakes; really they were Crows and 
Snakes. They killed a Snake who wore a spotted war bonnet. 

On the side from which the Indians charged a little ridge ran 
down toward the stream, and when they reached this ridge they 
all dismounted and stopped there out of sight of the troops. 
Beyond was a smooth, level piece of ground. They did not stay 
there long, but started on toward the hills. Those who were out 
on the level ground were obliged to fight there, though there was 
little cover. 

After the Indians had got back out of sight of the soldiers 
Two Moon looked over the ridge and saw four cavalry horses 
starting toward a hill. With Black Coyote he set out to capture 
them, and behind him followed two Cheyennes and then two 
Sioux. When they came in sight, charging down the hill, the 
soldiers came to meet them and drive them back. They began 
to shoot at the Indians and came near overtaking them. They 
almost caught them but at last gave up the pursuit and rode back. 
The six men who had charged, when they saw that they could ac- 



322 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

complish nothing, turned to join another body of Indians that 
was coming in above them. These were chiefly Cheyennes. 
Here two brave men, White Shield and a Sioux, charged on the 
troops and all the Indians followed them. When the charge was 
made the troopers were on foot, but as the Indians approached 
they all mounted and retreated toward the main body of the 
troops. They did not run far, but wheeled, fell in line, fired a 
volley and then mounted and ran back. Here White Shield 
killed a man and ran over and counted coup on him. The Sioux 
did the same. 

On a little ridge the soldiers again dismounted, trying to hold 
the Indians back, but the body coming against them was large; 
an oflBcer was shot, and the troops retreated. Among them was a 
soldier who could not mount his horse. White Shield rode be- 
tween him and his horse, to knock the reins out of his hands and 
free the horse. He did not get the horse, but counted coup on 
the man, who carried a bugle. 

When the Indians left the ridge from which the troops had 
been driven, they had to cross a steep gulch to get on the next 
flat. On the flat a soldier fell off his horse, perhaps wounded, 
and lost his horse. A Cheyenne named Scabby Eyelid rode up 
to the soldier and tried to strike him with his whip. The soldier 
caught the whip and pulled the Indian off his horse. They strug- 
gled together, but separated without serious hurt to either. Now 
the Indian scouts of the troops made a charge and the Sioux and 
Cheyennes ran, and retreated over the deep gulch which they had 
just crossed. After crossing this they wheeled and fired once 
and then again turned and ran. The number of soldiers behind 
them was large. 

The soldiers made a strong charge, but the Indians divided, 
some going down the ridge and some up. Young Two Moon 
left the ridge and when he reached the flat his horse began to get 
tired, and close behind him and coming fast were the soldiers. 
Those Cheyennes who were up above could see there alone a per- 
son whose horse had given out. Two Moon thought that this was 
his last day. He was obliged to dismount, leave his horse and 
run off on foot. The bullets were flying pretty thick and were 
knocking up the dust all about him. He saw before him, coming, 
a man who was riding on a buckskin horse and thought that he 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 323 

was going to have help, but the bullets flew so thick that the man 
who was coming turned and rode away. Again he saw a man 
coming toward him, riding a spotted horse. He recognized the 
person, Young Black Bird — now White Shield. White Shield 
rode up to his side and told him to jump on behind. In that way 
White Shield saved his life that day. 

They had not gone very far, but farther than he could have 
gone on foot, when this horse too began to lose its wind and to 
get tired. Soon they saw another man coming, leading a horse 
that he had captured from the Indian scouts who were with the 
troops. It was Contrary Belly. Meantime two Sioux had dashed 
up to the two men, but when they got close one of them said: 
"They are Cheyennes," and they rode away. Then Contrary 
Belly came up and Two Moon jumped on the led horse and rode 
off. When they reached the main body of Indians the soldiers 
were still coming up, but there were so many Indians that they 
could not drive them. Here the fight stopped. The Cheyennes 
and Sioux remained there for a little while and then went away 
and left the soldiers. Many men had been wounded and many 
horses killed and wounded, so that many of the Indians were on 
foot. 

They left four men to watch the troops to see what they did. 
These four men were: Lost Leg, Howling Wolf, and two others. 
They saw the soldiers gather up the dead and bring them do^^Ti 
near the creek not far from their camp. 

For this fight White Elk was given by his uncle, Mohk sta'ei 
ai'nd, his medicine, which was that of the swallow that has a 
forked tail — a barn-swallow. On his war bonnet, low down on the 
tail of the bonnet, was tied the skin of a swallow, while the brow 
piece was painted with many butterflies and dragonflies, and on 
the side of the tail-piece of the war bonnet were eagle-do\\Ti feathers 
four or five inches apart, and between each two feathers a tiny 
leaden bullet. 

Among the Cheyennes in this battle was Chief Comes in Sight, 
a brave man and a good fighter. His sister had followed him out 
to the battle. At the beginning of the fight he had charged the 
soldiers many times, and when they were fighting the upper group 
of soldiers, as he was riding up and down in front of the line, his 
horse was killed under him. White Elk was also riding up and 



324 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

down the line, but was going in the opposite direction from Chief 
Comes in Sight, and it was just after they had passed each other 
that Chief Comes in Sight was dismounted. Suddenly White 
Elk saw a person riding down from where the Indians were to- 
ward the soldiers, pass by Chief Comes in Sight, turn the horse 
and ride up by him, when Comes in Sight jumped on behind 
and they rode off. This was the sister of Chief Comes in Sight, 
Buffalo Calf Road Woman (Muts i mi'u na')- 

The Cheyennes have always spoken of this battle by this name : 

"Where the girl saved her brother — 

Kse e' se wo is tan'i we i tat'an e." 
Young girl saved his life brother. 

Comes in Sight is still living in Oklahoma, about sixty-six years 
old. It was near where Comes in Sight was unhorsed that the 
Shoshoni with a spotted war bonnet was killed. 

White Elk expresses the opinion that in this fight there were 
perhaps ninety Cheyennes. He does not know how many Sioux 
may have been there. In the place where the hottest fighting 
occurred there were more Indians than soldiers, but this does not 
count the troops who were on the other side of the stream — about 
three troops of cavalry. 

The account of what White Shield saw and did in this battle 
is interesting, because it gives so well the Indian point of view 
and explains to some extent the Cheyenne belief in the help re- 
ceived from animals. White Shield's name at that time was 
Young Black Bird. He is the son of Spotted Wolf, one of the 
bravest of the old-time warriors of the Cheyennes, who has been 
dead for about twenty years. White Shield says: 

Spotted Wolf, when he heard the news that the soldiers were 
coming, said: "My son, you had better tie up your horse. Do 
not let him fill himself with grass. If a horse's stomach is not full 
he can run a long way; if his stomach is full he soon gets tired. I 
wish to see you take the lead on this war trip." 

His father had been taught by the kingfisher bu:d and under- 
stood it. 

Spotted Wolf said further: "Son, go out and from one of the 
springs that come out of the hillside get me some blue clay." 
After it had been brought to him he painted on the shoulders 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 325 

and hips of the horse the figure of a kingfisher with its head toward 
the front. "Now," he said, "your horse will not get out of wind. 
Take him down to the stream and give him plenty of water; all 
he will drink." 

When White Shield brought the horse back, his father said: 
" When you are ready to start I will go with you, and before you 
make the charge I will put some medicine on you." 

Just before they left camp Spotted Wolf said: "Now, drink 
plenty of water and let this be your last drink until the fight is 
over." 

They started from camp after the sun was down and travelled 
all night, stopping from time to time. At daylight they were on 
the Rosebud at the mouth of Trail Creek. Above this they 
stopped and decided that as they were getting near to the enemy 
they would dress (paint) themselves here. His father dressed 
him, painting his whole body with yellow earth paint. Spotted 
Wolf had a bundle containing the war clothing that he himself 
was accustomed to wear in fights. From this bundle he took a 
scalp and, placing the horse so that it faced toward the south, he 
tied the scalp to its lower jaw. He then put his own war shirt on 
White Shield, took his kingfisher (the stuffed skin of a king- 
fisher) and held it up to the sun and sang a song. 

"My son," he said, "this is the song sung to me when the 
spirits took pity on me. If the kingfisher dives into the water 
for a fish he never misses his prey. To-day I wish you to do the 
same thing. You shall count the first coup in this fight." 

After he had finished speaking he tied the kingfisher to his 
son's scalp-lock. Held in the bill of the kingfisher were some 
kingfisher's feathers, dyed red. These feathers represented the 
flash of a gun. Then he hung about his son's neck a whistle made 
of the bone from an eagle's wing. He said : " If anyone runs up to 
you to shoot you, make this noise" (imitating the cry of the king- 
fisher) " and the bullet will not hurt you." He took in his mouth 
a little medicine and a little earth and raised the right fore foot of 
the horse and blew a little of this on the sole of the hoof, and did 
the same thing on the right hind foot, the left hind foot, and the 
left fore foot. Then he blew the medicine on the horse between 
the ears, on the withers, at the end of the mane, and at the root 
and the end of the tail. "Putting this on the soles of his hoofs," 



326 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

said Spotted Wolf, "will make him carry himself lightly and not 
fall. When you come within sight of the enemy and are going 
to charge, put the whistle in your mouth and whistle. That is 
what the kingfisher does when he catches the fish. You shall 
catch one of the enemy. When you see the enemy they may 
frighten you so that you will lose your mind a little, but I do not 
think this will happen. You will frighten your enemies before 
they frighten you. I have dressed you fully for war. There are 
some women with the party; you must not ride by the side of 
any of them. Give me your quirt, son." 

He took some horse medicine and rubbed it over the quirt and 
said : " If you see anyone ahead of you and whirl your quirt about 
your head the man's horse may fall. When you charge try to 
keep on the right-hand side of everyone. Take pity on every- 
one. If you see some man in a hard place, from which he cannot 
escape, help him if you can. If you yourself get in a bad place, 
do not get excited, but try to shoot and defend yourself. That is 
the way to become great. If you should be killed, the enemy 
when they go back will say that they fought a man who was very 
brave; that they had a hard time to kill him." 

Such were the instructions given White Shield by his father. 

Before this was finished some of the Cheyennes had already 
gone forward and a little later he heard shots — those fired by their 
own scouts who had met some Crow scouts. When the shots were 
heard the Sioux and Cheyennes all charged, riding across the hills 
to where they heard the shooting, running up one hill and down 
another. They did not follow the stream valley. 

When they reached the place the Indian scouts had retreated 
to the soldiers, who sat there on their horses. Old Red War 
Bonnet, Walks Last, Feathered Sun, White Shield, and White 
Bird were among the first to reach this point. The Sioux and 
Cheyennes were beginning to come toward the soldiers from all 
directions. At the top of the hill they stopped about six hundred 
yards from the soldiers. Suddenly to the right a man appeared 
charging toward the soldiers. He was followed by a little boy 
twelve or thirteen years old. They recognized Chief Comes in 
Sight, and the boy was a little Sioux boy. The five Cheyennes 
just mentioned charged down, following the two, and about fifty 
yards behind them. Neither the soldiers nor Indian scouts fired, 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 327 

but they kept moving about. When the Cheyennes were quite 
near to the soldiers. Chief Comes in Sight turned his horse to the 
left and the boy to the right. Chief Comes in Sight fired two shots 
from a pistol and all the soldiers shouted and fired and charged. 
They began to overtake Chief Comes in Sight, who now joined the 
five Cheyennes, and all had to run. The Indian scouts chased 
the little boy and overtook him, taking him from his horse and 
killing him. As the six Cheyennes went back to the hill they 
had been on, the soldiers almost overtook them. When the sol- 
diers were within fifty yards of them Feathered Sun said : " Let us 
dismount; they are pushing us too closely." Feathered Sun and 
White Shield dismounted and the troops stopped, all except one 
scout, thought to be a Crow. He carried a long lance and, lying 
down on his horse's back so that he could not be seen, charged 
straight toward the two. White Shield and the other man were 
some distance apart and the Crow was coming straight for White 
Shield. He was obliged to shoot at the horse, aiming at its breast. 
When he fired the horse turned a somersault, turning clear over. 
The Crow dropped his lance and Wliite Shield rushed to his own 
horse, and as he mounted it was like a wave of water coming over 
the hill behind him — the Cheyennes. They seemed to come from 
all the foothills and now the soldiers fell back. When the Chey- 
ennes and Sioux charged down they were less than fifty yards 
from the troops. White Shield turned his horse and rode along 
in front of the Indian scouts, who were all on foot and shooting. 
A little off to one side the soldiers were fighting the Cheyennes 
and Sioux. As he rode along he saw a man who had been shot 
and who was wearing a large war bonnet. The Cheyennes tried 
to count coup on the body, but the scouts fought for it. Here a 
Sioux had his leg smashed and a Cheyenne's horse was killed. 
White Shield got to within three or four yards of the body, but he 
was obliged to turn his horse. As he looked down he saw a troop 
of cavalry galloping toward them, but not yet shooting. 

When they had come pretty near, the soldiers began to fire 
and the Cheyennes and Sioux retreated to the hills. The Indian 
scouts and the soldiers made a strong charge, and were right be- 
hind the Cheyennes and Sioux, who were forced to whip their 
horses on both sides to get away. It was a close race. The sol- 
diers were shooting fast. Some men called out: "Stop, stop, 



328 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

some horses have been killed; let us save these men and stand 
off the soldiers." They did not stop, but they succeeded in saving 
all the dismounted men. The troops chased the Indians to a 
steep ravine which the horses could not cross. Those who reached 
it first dismounted. When they reached here two more com- 
panies of soldiers came up. 

Before they came to the ravine, the ground dropped off a 
little, making a ridge behind which the Sioux and Cheyennes 
stopped and all dismounted. This made them feel good, for 
here was something to fight behind. They were about two hun- 
dred men. At this time three separate fights were going on, of 
which this was the one in the middle. At this place they shot 
down the horse of one of the scouts, and when this horse fell the 
soldiers and scouts turned back and the Cheyennes and Sioux 
mounted and charged them. They followed them back to the 
place where they had fought for the man with the war bonnet. 
On the way back they overtook a scout on a wounded horse. He 
was a Shoshoni. He threw himself off his horse, and ran ahead on 
foot. Two Sioux were close behind him and White Shield was off 
to one side. One Sioux carried a long lance, and as the Shoshoni 
turned to fire he struck him with his lance, and afterward with 
the body of his horse he knocked him down. As the Shoshoni 
was getting up the second Sioux ran over him with his horse, and 
then White Shield came up and shot him, but counted no coup. 
The soldiers and scouts charged back on them, and followed them 
back to the place where they had been before, at the edge of the 
ravine. All this time the firing was heavj^ on both sides. 

When the Cheyennes and Sioux had run behind the ridge 
again, they stood with about half the body exposed, shooting 
over it. A Cheyenne standing by White Shield was shot through 
the body, but did not die until they got him to camp. For a 
long time, on a little flat a quarter of a mile wide, they fought 
there, each side alternately retreating and advancing. Far off 
to the right they could hear shooting which sounded as if it were 
going up into the hills. 

After a time White Shield left this fight, and rode off to one 
side to get into this other fight. When he rode his horse up on 
the hill he could see the fight; one company of soldiers following 
up some Indians. The soldiers had left their horses, and were 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 329 

advancing on foot. Their horses were a quarter of a mile behind 
them. Riding up and down before the soldiers, he saw a young 
man whom he at length recognized as Goose Feather, a son of 
the chief. Dull Knife. White Shield rode on until he met Goose 
Feather, who had gone behind a little knoll. He said to Goose 
Feather: "Hold my horse for a moment," and he stepped over 
the hill in sight. As he did this all the soldiers threw themselves 
on the ground and began firing, but he managed to jump behind 
a rock so as to be out of sight. Then the soldiers turned their 
guns and began to shoot in another direction at the Indians on 
the hill. White Shield shot at the nearest soldier, who was about 
forty yards off, but shot under him, throwing the dirt over his 
body. The soldiers now all rose to their feet to go back to their 
horses, and the nearest soldier, having partly turned, ran, and 
White Shield shot at him and he fell. White Shield ran back to 
get his horse, but Goose Feather had let it go so that he might 
run down and count coup on the soldier. White Shield caught 
his horse, but Goose Feather reached the soldier first, and counted 
coup on him with a lance, while White Shield counted the second 
coup with his whip. The third man to count coup took the sol- 
dier's arms and belt. The soldiers kept on running toward their 
horses. 

White Shield and Goose Feather went on after the soldiers. 
Just as the soldiers reached their horses an officer called out 
giving an order, and all the soldiers faced about to meet the 
charge of a great crowd of Cheyennes who were following. White 
Shield turned off to the right, and got behind a little knoll. Every 
Cheyenne and Sioux dodged behind the knoll and now both sides 
were shooting as hard as they could, only about thirty yards 
apart. All at once the soldiers ceased firing, but the Indians 
kept on shooting. White Shield crept over the hill to look and 
see why the soldiers had stopped. The horses were all in line and 
the soldiers had one foot in the stirrup. Off to one side a man 
was seated on a roan horse, who gave an order and then turned 
to look back. White Shield shot just as he turned his head, and 
when they found the man he was shot just over the eyebrow. 
The soldiers started to retreat, and as they did so they scattered. 
A man on foot, holding his horse with one hand and a six-shooter 
in the other, was trying to mount his horse. White Shield made 



330 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

a charge to count coup on him. The man shot as White Shield 
was coming up, but the horse pulled him and he missed his aim. 
White Shield rode his horse between the man and the horse he 
was holding, and knocked the man down with his gun. The next 
man behind White Shield rode over the soldier. White Shield 
turned his horse and rode back to the officer he had killed, 
and as he was going he saw some guns. When he came back 
the guns were gone, but the officer still had a six-shooter and 
a belt full of pistol cartridges. White Shield took the six- 
shooter. 

As he looked back he saw the soldier that he had knocked 
down creeping about on his hands and knees and went back and 
killed him. He took his belt and cartridges, but his six-shooter 
was gone. 

At this place White Shield stopped and got off his horse, and 
led it up and down. At a distance he could see the people fight- 
ing. The soldiers had separated and were split up in twos and 
threes. Far off he could see a great many soldiers and the scouts. 
As he kept looking presently he saw a person riding toward the 
soldiers and then he saw his horse fall, catching the man under 
its body. He seemed to be trying to get out, but the scouts rode 
up and shot him. After the man was shot, all the Indians ran 
and the soldiers followed them back to the place from which the 
Indians had driven the soldiers, and now the Indians had to 
scatter out by twos and threes. White Shield did not move from 
the place where he was until the Indians got up to him. Then 
he mounted. Some of those who came up to him were riding 
double — men whose horses had been shot or had given out. Still 
he waited, thinking he would have a chance to get in some more 
shots. He fired a shot or two and then looking down to one side 
he saw a man on foot and soldiers following and overtaking him. 
When he tried to open his gun after firing, he could not open it. 
He had put in a captured cartridge, too small for the gun, and it 
had swelled and stuck in the chamber. He was unarmed. By 
this time the people had all passed and the only man between 
him and the soldiers was the one on foot. He rode down to this 
man, and found him almost exhausted. It was young Two Moon. 
White Shield called out to him: "My friend, come and get on 
behind me." The remainder of the Indians were a long way 



CROOK'S FIGHT ON THE ROSEBUD 331 

ahead of them. He said to Two Moon: "I can no longer shoot; 
I have a shell fast in my gun." 

Many Indians ahead of them were now on foot, and many 
horses were constantly being shot and wounded or were giving 
out and stopping. Here Feathered Sun's horse was shot, and its 
rider jumped up and ran along on foot. The soldiers were close 
behind — only about thirty yards. Another man on foot was run- 
ning along behind Feathered Sun, and just as he reached Feathered 
Sun's horse which had been knocked down, it got up on its feet, 
and he jumped on it and it ran off as well as ever. It had only 
been creased. Down the line a man was seen coming, and when 
he got near they saw it was Contrary Belly. He was leading a 
roan horse and as he overtook them he said: "Here is a horse 
for you to ride"; and Two Moon took it. 

As White Shield rode on, he saw in front of him a Sioux on 
horseback and another Sioux on foot carrying a stick in his hand. 
He rode up to the man on foot and saw that he was carrying a 
ramrod, for he had been using a muzzle-loader, and with this 
ramrod White Shield knocked the shell out of his gun. Mean- 
time, the soldiers and the Indian scouts behind them were seeing 
how much noise they could make with guns and cries, and the 
Cheyennes and Sioux in front were running and stopping and 
firing and running. The Sioux on horseback had on a war bonnet 
and shield. As he rode, his horse's leg was broken. He would 
not leave his horse, but stopped to fight, and then turned and 
ran to some timber. The soldiers and scouts all seemed to follow 
him and this gave the other Indians a chance to get away. The 
soldiers killed the Sioux and then all turned back. The Cheyennes 
and Sioux watched them a long time from the hills, and then 
went to their camps. 

When White Shield's gun was made useless by the shell, he 
never once thought of the six-shooter he had captured. He might 
have been killed wearing this without attempting to defend himself. 

When they got down on the Little Big Horn River they be- 
gan to have war dances. They took out the buffalo hat and hung 
it up and then danced, tying a scalp to it. For four nights of 
this dance his mother carried the gun that he had used. 

At the Big Bend of the Rosebud, where the lower group of 
soldiers was, is now the farm of Thomas Benson. The battle- 



332 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

ground on the river above his ranch includes the farms of J. L. 
Davis, A. L. Young, and Charles Young. On a little stream 
running into the Rosebud below where the fight with the upper 
group of soldiers took place is Mrs. Colmar's, and on the south 
prong of the Rosebud lives M. T. Price. Ranches and cultivated 
fields occupy the ground fought over by the w^hite troops and 
Indians in 1876. The camp of the soldiers was on land now be- 
longing to Mr. Benson. There the dead were buried. It was on 
the ground between the Big Bend and the Young places that 
the fighting took place. It was all on the open prairie above, or 
in the wide open valley. There was no chance for ambushment 
or approach under cover. In the hot fighting and the fierce charges 
made much courage was displayed by Indians and whites alike. 



XXVI 

THE CUSTER BATTLE 
1876 

The defeat of General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry on 
June 25, 1876, with a loss of two hundred and sixty-five men killed 
and fifty-two wounded, was the most sensational battle of the 
Western Indian wars. Under orders from General Alfred H. 
Terry, the Commander of the Department of Dakota, General 
Custer had been sent from the mouth of the Rosebud River, in 
Montana, on a scout to find the Indians believed to be camped 
somewhere to the south — perhaps on the Little Big Horn River. 
The trail of these Indians, leading up the Rosebud River, had 
been discovered some days before, and June 22 practically the 
whole Seventh Cavalry, about seven hundred men and twenty- 
eight officers, had ridden out from the camp to follow that trail. 

The story, told so many times, need not be repeated in detail 
here. From a lookout on the divide between the Rosebud and 
the Little Big Horn General Custer learned from his scouts the 
location of the Indian village, and at a point on Reno Creek near 
the Little Big Horn divided his forces into three battalions, send- 
ing Major Reno with three troops of cavalry and some scouts to 
a point on the Little Big Horn River above the uppermost village, 
and Captain Benteen with three troops to scout a little to the 
left in a southerly direction toward the Little Big Horn. Ben- 
teen's orders were if he saw any Indians to attack them. Custer 
himself went around to attack the village farther down the stream. 
His scouts had warned him that the village was very large and 
that the issue would be doubtful. 

Near the point where Custer and Reno separated, Reno crossed 
the river and soon after attacked the upper village. Seeing the 
size of the camp and being afraid to continue the attack, he re- 
treated to a body of timber, where he remained but a short time 
and then, panic-stricken, left the timber, crossed the Little Big 

333 



334 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Horn River and took refuge on the high bluffs on the north side of 
the river, where he afterward intrenched himself. A little later 
Benteen joined him, as did Captain McDougall with the pack- 
train. Meantime Custer went around, came within sight of the 
lower part of the great camp where the Cheyennes, Brules, and 
Ogallalas had their lodges, and then, instead of crossing the stream 
and charging through the village, halted and took a position on a 
long, high ridge; and after a fight which lasted not more than two 
or three hours his whole command w^as killed. 

General E. S. Godfrey, retired, at that time lieutenant in the 
Seventh Cavalry, was with Benteen and Reno and in 1892, in the 
Century Magazine, gave by far the most complete account we have 
had of the matter. 

There were no white survivors of the Custer battle, and such 
information about it as we have comes from Indian accounts. 
What is told here comes altogether from the Northern Cheyennes. 
Many of the informants are still living. These accounts consist 
of a number of individual observations, from which it is not easy 
to get any general idea of the fight. 

In 1875, Sitting Bull took part in a medicine lodge held on 
Tongue River. White Bull, who was present, has told me what 
took place. Sitting Bull professed to have a vision, after which 
he announced to the people that the Great Power had told him 
that his enemies would be delivered into his hands. He did not 
profess to know who these enemies were, but explained that per- 
haps they might be soldiers. 

In the spring of 1876 the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes came 
together near the mouth of the Rosebud River, near the Yellow- 
stone, where a large camp gathered. While there it was reported 
that white soldiers were in the country somewhere, but just where 
nobody seemed to know. In March, in bitter cold weather, 
General Reynolds^ attacked and captured a camp on Powder 
River occupied by Sioux and Cheyennes. No Indians appear to 
have been killed, but the troops lost some men. The whole In- 
dian herd was taken. Suddenly without apparent reason the 
troops retreated, and the Indians followed them and recaptured 
most of the horses. 

^ Record of Engagements, pp. 50, 51. 



\ 



THE CUSTER BATTLE 335 

From the mouth of the Rosebud the Indians moved up that 
stream, and then over to the head of Reno Creek, always keeping 
scouts out to look for enemies. 

After the men had left the camp on the head of Reno Creek to 
go to fight Crook the villages moved a short distance down Reno 
Creek toward the Little Big Horn River, and after two nights 
there they moved to the mouth of Reno Creek and camped there 
for five or six days. While in this camp seven Arapahoes came 
to the camp. The Cheyennes and Sioux believed that these 
men were scouts from some camp of soldiers and seized them, 
took their arms and horses, and a part of their clothing, and were 
inclined to kill them. Two of the Cheyennes, Black Wolf and 
Last Bull, took their part and advised the people not to act hastily 
but to wait. The Arapahoes were taken to old Two Moon's 
lodge, which was closely surrounded. While they were there 
many Sioux came up with cocked guns, and, pointing them at the 
Arapahoes, said that they must be killed. Women whose rela- 
tions had been killed asked for the death of the Arapahoes. 
Nevertheless most people said: "This is Two Moon's lodge; we 
must wait until he comes; he shall decide." They sent out a 
young man to look for Two Moon, who at last was found in one 
of the Sioux camps. In the meantime they had taken the Arap- 
aho chief into the lodge. After a time Two Moon with five or 
six Sioux chiefs came to his lodge and called in all the Arapahoes. 
These chiefs were to decide what should be done with the pris- 
oners. 

After some conversation Two Moon called out : " These Arap- 
ahoes are all right. They have come here to help us fight the 
soldiers. Do not harm them, but give them back their property." 
The Sioux chiefs said the same thing, and then their horses, arms, 
and clothing were returned to the Arapahoes. Some old people 
then advised that these strangers should be invited to go to 
different lodges and be fed. 

The day before Custer's attack the Indians moved again and 
camped in the great bottom of the Little Big Horn, at the place 
where the battle was fought. There seems to have been a general 
impression that they were to be attacked, but no specific informa- 
tion was at hand. The very morning of the fight two young men 
went fishing on the Little Big Horn River. From time to time 



336 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

a little lad, who accompanied them, was sent up to the higher land 
away from the river to catch grasshoppers to use in the fishing, 
and the last time he returned he said to his uncle. White Shield: 
" I saw a person wearing a war bonnet go by just now. They must 
be looking for someone." White Shield rode up on the hill to 
look and heard distant shooting and saw people running about. 
This told him that the camp had been attacked, and he hurried 
to it. 

We have definite accounts of the Seventh Cavalry until the 
time of the division of the command, when Custer sent Reno to 
charge the upper end of the camp and himself went about to come 
in below. Cheyenne and Sioux scouts left to watch the troops 
under Crook had seen that command march south, and while 
returning to their own camp saw Custer's command marching 
up the Rosebud River. Not long after the man who made this 
discovery reached the camp four or five lodges of Sioux hurried 
in. They had set out to go to Red Cloud agency, had discovered 
Custer's jjeople close to them, and turned back frightened. Their 
report caused much alarm. 

At a point on Reno Creek two men, wounded in the Crook 
fight on the Rosebud, had died and been left there in lodges. 
The troops discovered these lodges and charged them, but found 
no one there alive. It was known in the camp that the troops 
had separated on Reno Creek, and an old man harangued that 
the soldiers were about to charge from the upper end and also 
from the lower end. When this was called out men began to 
prepare for the fight and to mount their horses, but many of the 
horses had been sent out on herd and most of the men were on 
foot. Reno's party was seen approaching the upper Indian 
camp, and most of the men went up there to meet him. He 
charged down on the flat where there was timber and near to 
the upper end of the Sioux village. Then the troops stopped 
and seemed to become very much excited and retreated to the 
timber. 

After a short stop in the timber the troops rushed out and 
began to retreat, their commander apparently leading the way. 
The Indians say they acted as if they were drunk, which per- 
haps means that they were very much excited — probably panic- 
stricken. At all events, they bolted out of the timber and charged 



THE CUSTER BATTLE 337 

back through the Indians, to cross the stream and reach the 
higher ground on the other side. They did not cross where they 
had come over before, but jumped over a bank. All the Chey- 
enne evidence shows that they made no attempt to defend them- 
selves but thought only of getting away. The Indians rode up 
close to them and knocked some of them from their horses as they 
were running while some fell off while crossing the river. "It 
was like chasing buffalo— a great chase." 

" We could never understand why the soldiers left the timber, 
for if they had stayed there the Indians couid not have killed 
them." 

The troops crossed the river and got up on the hill. Just 
about that time the Indians saw the large pack-train of mules, 
which went directly to Reno. At the river all the Indians stopped. 
They did not follow the trooos across the stream, but turned back 
to look over the dead to see who of their own people were killed, 
and to plunder. While doing this they heard shooting and call- 
ing down the river — a man shouting out that troops were attack- 
ing the lower end of the village. They all rushed down below 
and saw Custer coming down the hill and almost at the river. 

Before this the women and children down at the lower villages 
heard the shooting up above and becoming frightened set out to 
cross the river to the north side and so to get farther from the 
Reno fight. While some were crossing the river and some who 
had already crossed were going up the hill they discovered more 
troops coming — Custer's party. The women ran back and out 
the other side of the village and toward the bluffs to the south- 
east of the river. By this time the men who were fighting Reno 
had learned that more soldiers were coming, and all the men rushed 
down the creek to the lower camps. By that time — according to 
Brave Wolf — a part of Custer's troops had got down toward the 
mouth of the little, dry creek and were near the level of the bot- 
tom. There they began fighting, and for quite a long time fought 
near the river, neither party giving back. 

When White Shield, hurrying back from his fishing, reached 
the camp his mother had already secured his horse and was wait- 
ing for him. He began to dress, and while doing this he saw 
Custer's troops in seven groups approaching the river. Some 
Sioux and Cheyennes had already seen them, and some men who 



338 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

were in the camp had crossed the river at the ford to meet Custer. 
White Shield overtook a group of four Cheyennes, among whom 
were Roan Bear, Bobtail Horse, and Calf. Mad Wolf — probably 
Mad Hearted Wolf, often called Rabid Wolf, but actually meaning 
Wolf that has no sense — was riding with White Shield. He 
was one of the bravest and wisest men in the tribe. As they 
rode along he said to White Shield: "No one must charge on the 
soldiers now; they are too many." As the Cheyennes rode out of 
the river toward the troops, who were still at a distance, they saw 
that the soldiers were following five Sioux who were running from 
them. They gradually circled away from in front of the soldiers 
and the troops did not follow them, but kept on toward the river. 
The troops were headed straight for the ford — about half a mile 
above the battle-field — and White Shield and the other Chey- 
ennes believed that Custer was about to cross the river and get 
into the camp. The troops were getting near them, but suddenly 
before the troops reached the river the gray-horse company halted 
and dismounted, and all who were following them, as far as could 
be seen, also stopped and dismounted. 

White Shield rode off to the left and down the river, while 
Bobtail Horse, Calf, and the two or three who were with them 
stopped close to the river, and under cover of a low ridge began 
to shoot at the soldiers. The five Sioux whom the troops had at 
first seemed to be pursuing now joined Calf and Bobtail Horse, 
and the ten Indians were shooting at the soldiers as fast as they 
could. About the time the soldiers halted one was killed. Now 
more Sioux and Cheyennes began to gather, the Indians crossing 
the river and stringing up the gulch like ants rushing out of a 
hill, and the two troops of cavalry that had come up nearest to 
Bobtail Horse and his party fell back to the side of a little knoll 
and stopped there. Yellow Nose charged close up to them alone. 
The two troops remained there only a few moments. Crowded 
back, they crossed a deep gulch and climbed the hill on the other 
side, going toward where the monument now stands, where by 
this time the gray-horse company had stopped. Some of the sol- 
diers were killed on the way, but the gray-horse company opened 
so heavy a fire that the Indians fell back. 

Certain brave Cheyennes — Yellow Nose, Contrary Belly, and 
Chief Comes in Sight — had been charging up close to the sol- 



THE CUSTER BATTLE 339 

diers, and these charges seemed greatly to frighten the troop- 
horses held behind the line, so that they were struggling and 
circling about the men who held them. 

Now the call went along the Indian line ordering them to 
dismount, and the Cheyennes began to shoot fast. A long way 
off to the southeast two men, followed by many Indians, made a 
charge, and Yellow Nose snatched from the ground where it stood 
a company guidon, carrying it away, and as he went counting 
coup on a soldier. After this charge the frightened horses of 
this company broke away from those who were holding them 
and stampeded. Some Indians cried: "The soldiers are run- 
ning," but this was not true. 

By this time all the soldiers had moved back from the river 
except the gray-horse company, which stood its ground on the 
place where the monument now is. The different groups of 
soldiers moved about a little on the higher ground, some going 
toward the river and some away from it, and when the Indians 
charged from all sides the soldiers drew a little together. By 
this time three of the troops had lost their horses, but four still 
had theirs. One company that had lost its horses was near where 
the road goes now, and the men, all on foot, were trying to work 
their way toward the gray-horse company on the hill half a mile 
from them. About half the men were without guns. They fought 
with six-shooters, close fighting — almost hand to hand — as they 
went up the hill. 

They did not reach the top of the hill. Every ravine run- 
hing down from the northwest side of the ridge, every little bunch 
of brush, was occupied by Indians, who kept up a constant and 
galling fire, and the Indians were so many that the destruction 
among the troops was very great. By this time the Indians were 
to some extent provided with improved arms. In the Crook 
fight they had captured a number of carbines from the troops, 
and to-day were constantly acquiring new arms while they found 
that the saddle-bags of the captured horses were full of ammuni- 
tion. White Bull says: "If it had not been for this they could 
not have killed them so quickly." When the fight began about 
half the Indians had guns and the remainder bows, for which, 
however, they had many arrows. The guns were of many sorts — 
muzzle-loaders, Spencer carbines, old-fashioned Henry rifles, and 



340 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

old Sharps military rifles.^ The Sharps were probably the best 
guns they had, except those recently captured from the soldiers. 

White Shield says that the gray-horse company held their 
horses to the last, and that almost all these horses were killed. 
On the other hand, Bobtail Horse declares that some of their 
horses got away from the soldiers and charged down through 
the Indians, knocking them down and running over them. Bob- 
tail Horse caught two of these horses and took them across the 
river to the camp, to which the women had now returned. 

Brave Wolf, who was the fighting chief of the Cheyennes, 
had been in the fight with Reno until the shooting was heard 
down the river, when all the Indians went down there. He told 
me: "When I got to the Cheyenne camp the fighting had been 
going on for some time. The soldiers (Custer's) were right down 
close to the stream, but none were on the side of the camp. Just 
as I got there the soldiers began to retreat up the narrow gulch. 
They were all drawn up in line of battle, shooting well and fight- 
ing hard, but there were so many people around them that they 
could not help being killed. They still held their line of battle, 
and kept fighting and falling from their horses — fighting and fall- 
ing, all the way up nearly to where the monument now stands. 
I think all their horses had been killed before they got to the top 
of the hill. None got there on horseback, and only a few on foot. 
A part of those who had reached the top of the hill went on over 
and tried to go to the river, but they killed them all going down 
the hill, before any of them got to the creek. 

"It was hard fighting; very hard all the time. I have been 
in many hard fights, but I never saw such brave men." 

^ American Horse has told me that the emigrants passing up the South 
Platte River to the mines between 1858 and 1865 were largely armed with 
the Sharps mihtary rifles, and the Indians secured many of them in trade 
from these travellers. They were useful arms. The Indians also had some 
old-fashioned cap six-shooters, and during the year 1875 there was a good deal 
of trading done for improved rifles. 

The method by which the Indians kept themselves supplied with am- 
munition for firearms, not only loose ammunition but also fixed, has always 
been more or less mysterious, but they explain that in those war days they 
were constantly purchasing powder, lead, primers, and also outfits for re- 
loading cartridges. They carried with them as part of their most prized 
possessions sacks of baUs they had moulded and cans of powder. So far as 
possible, they saved all the metal cartridge shells they used or found, and no 
doubt became expert reloaders of shells. 



THE CUSTER BATTLE 341 

Just after the three companies had reached the gray-horse 
company, a man riding a sorrel horse broke away from the sol- 
diers, and rode back up the river and toward the hills, in the 
direction from which the soldiers had come. Some Indians fol- 
lowed him, but his horse was fast and long-winded, and at last 
only three men were left in pursuit. A Sioux, and two Cheyennes, 
Old Bear and Kills in the Night, both living in 1915, kept on, 
trying to overtake him. The Sioux fired at the man, but missed 
him; then Old Bear fired, and a little later the man fell from his 
horse and when they got to him they found that he had been shot 
in the back, between the shoulders. It is believed that Old Bear 
killed him. It is conjectured that this was Lieutenant Harring- 
ton, whose body was never identified. 

A man supposed by some of the Indians to be General Custer 
was on the outer edge of the gray-horse company, toward the 
river. White Shield saw this man whUe he was being stripped. 
He was clad in a buckskin shirt, fringed on the breast, with buck- 
skin trousers; wore fine, high boots, and had a knife stuck in a 
scabbard in his boot. A large red handkerchief was tied about 
his neck. He was armed with a six-shooter and a long knife. 
He died with his pistol in his hand. He had a mustache, but no 
other hair on his face, and had blue marks pricked into the skin 
on the arms above the wrist. This was probably Tom Custer. 

The Indians state positively that they did not kill the troops 
by charging into them, but kept shooting them from behind the 
hills. The final charge was not made until all the troops in the 
main body had fallen, though, of course, many soldiers were still 
on foot scattered down toward the river. When all the troops 
on the hill had fallen, the Indians gave a loud shout and charged 
up the ridge. The soldiers toward the river backed away, and 
after that the fight did not last long enough to light a pipe. 

After the fight was over the women and children went up to 
the battle-ground, and as usual there was mutilation of the dead. 
Spotted Hawk, who was then seven years old, relates that he 
went up with a group of children a little older than he, and they 
began to take what they wished from the slain. Among other 
things they tried to take off the clothing, cutting loose the waist- 
bands of the soldiers to remove their trousers. While engaged 



342 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

in this work a chUd happened to rip up a waistband and noticed 
in it pieces of green paper, some small and some large — the small 
no doubt fractional currency and the larger pieces bills. The 
children thought these things pretty, and looking further found 
that almost every waistband contained some money. They did 
not know what this was, but, since it was hidden, they assumed 
that it must be precious, and took it back to camp. Spotted 
Hawk says that after this, while playing at making mud images, 
as the children did, he made a clay horse for a clay rider, and used 
a folded bill for a saddle blanket for the horseman to sit on. 

After the Custer command had been wiped out, the fighting 
men returned up the river to attack Reno's command, with which 
were Captain Benteen's men and the pack-train. The subse- 
quent operations here have been detailed by General Godfrey in 
his article in the Century Magazine, which still remains the best 
account of the fight. During the afternoon thirteen of Reno's 
men — twelve soldiers and one civilian scout — who had been in 
the timber rejoined the command. George Herendeen was one 
of these. 

Lieutenant De Rudio and Tom O'Neal, an enlisted man, to- 
gether with William Jackson and Fred Girard had remained in 
the timber and were now concealed there. The Indians knew 
that there were people in the timber, but devoted their attention 
chiefly to the troops intrenched on top of the hill, and kept shoot- 
ing at them. 

The morning after the Custer fight the Indians were still 
watching Reno's troops. By this time the besieged had begun 
to suffer for water. The Indians say that a soldier stripped to 
his underclothing ran down the hill to the river, and the Indians 
began to shoot at him. In one hand he held a quart cup, and in 
the other a canteen. When he reached the river he threw himself 
down in the water, filling his vessels and drinking at the same 
time. Half the time they could not see him because of the water 
splashed up by the bullets. After two or three moments he rose 
and ran up the hill again, entering the breastworks unhurt, though 
they had been firing at him all the time. 

The Indians stayed here all day long and made several charges, 
but at length their scouts brought word of the approach of Terry, 
and they determined that they must go. The criers went about 



THE CUSTER BATIXE 343 

shouting out orders that the camp should move, and the women 
began to pack up and were soon on their way. 

Among the scouts killed with Reno was Bloody Knife, a well- 
known Ree, who had been brought up among the Sioux, for dur- 
ing some period of peace his father had married a Ree woman. 
By the time that Bloody Knife was a well-grown boy in the Sioux 
camp his mother was seized with a great wish to see her own peo- 
ple, and her husband consented that she should return to the Ree 
village on the Missouri River. Bloody Knife went with her and 
after that lived with the Rees, and was considered a Ree. In 1874 
he accompanied the Custer expedition to the Black Hills of Da- 
kota and was a good scout. 

During the flight of Reno's troops across the Little Big Horn 
River, Bloody Knife was killed. Later among the women who 
came down from the Sioux and Cheyenne camp to get trophies 
to take back to their camp were two young women, daughters 
of Bloody Knife's sister, a Sioux woman. They found an Indian, 
and seeing from his clothing that he was a scout for the soldiers, 
cut off his head, put it on a pole, and returned to camp. They 
showed the trophy in triumph to the people, and among others 
to their mother, who recognized it as the head of her brother, 
Bloody Knife. 

Some years ago Major De Rudio wrote for Harper's Weekly 
an account of the adventures of the four men who were left in 
the timber after Reno had fled across the Little Big Horn River 
to the hill. They became separated; Major De Rudio and O'Neal 
stayed together, and Jackson and Girard. The two former un- 
expectedly met some Indians who were travelling through the 
timber and killed two or three of them. All four finally reached 
Reno's command on the hill. 

The community of Indians attacked here by the Custer com- 
mand was a large one — how large no one knows. Young Two 
Moon has declared to me that there were two hundred lodges in 
the Cheyenne village and six villages of Sioux, each one larger 
than the Cheyenne. Even if the Sioux villages were no larger 
than the Cheyenne this would make one thousand four hundred 
lodges, and beside the people occupying the lodges there were a 
multitude of strangers — Indians from different reservations — 
whose number cannot be estimated. That spring the Sioux and 



344 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the Cheyennes sent out runners to Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, 
Standing Rock, and other Sioux reservations to call warriors to 
join the camp, and the response to this invitation was large. 
There were also in the camp some Southern Cheyennes, some 
Yankton Sioux, and some Arapahoes. Many of these people 
were guests in the lodges, and many others camped under shelters 
outside of the lodges. Cheyennes have told me that they believed 
there were more than one thousand five hundred lodges, and per- 
haps three or four fighting men to a lodge, a total therefore of from 
four thousand five hundred to six thousand men. 

Eastman's account^ is quite different, and his numbers much 
smaller. He gives only a little more than nine hundred lodges, 
and perhaps one thousand four hundred warriors. Yet perhaps 
this is as much too small as the other estimate is too large. North- 
ern Cheyenne testimony agrees that there were two hundred lodges 
of Cheyennes, while Eastman gives only fifty-five. His enumera- 
tion of the Sioux may be closer. Of one thing we may be sure, 
that if Reno and Custer had kept on and charged through the 
village from opposite ends the Indians would have scattered, and 
there would have been no disaster. 

For many years past the Northern Cheyennes whenever the 
Custer fight has been under discussion have expressed the opinion 
that if Reno had remained in the timber the Indians could have 
done nothing with him. They agree further that if Custer had 
continued his charge and gone to and through the villages the 
Indians would have fled, and he would have killed many of them. 
"If the soldiers had not stopped, they would have killed lots 
of Indians," said one of their most famous warriors. Anyone 
familiar with Indian ways, mode of thought, and war customs 
knows very well that as a rule the Indian avoids coming to 
close quarters with his enemy. If the enemy charges, the Indian 
runs away, but as soon as the vigor of the charge lessens or the 
enemy stops the Indian becomes encouraged, turns about and 
himself charges. This was characteristic of the old intertribal 
wars which consisted largely of charges backward and forward 
by the two opposing forces. 

Examinations of the battle-ground have been made by many 
people without clearing up the events of the fight. It seems, 

' Chautauquan, July, 1900. 



THE CUSTER BATTLE 345 

however, that a part of Custer's command did come nearly down 
to the ford, and if the two companies that reached that point — 
with whom I suppose were Lieutenants Crittenden and Calhoun 
— had kept on and crossed the river they would no doubt have 
been followed by the rest of the command, and a great victory 
might have followed. It is clear that Custer's purpose was to 
charge the camp from both ends. The plan was a good one, but 
required that the two charges should be made about the same time 
and should be led by men who were without fear. Either Reno 
charged too soon, or else it took Custer far longer than expected 
to get round to his position. The distance Reno had to go was 
but three miles, while Custer had six or seven, or even ten to ride. 
Reno had been defeated and was on his hill before Custer drew 
near the river. It is possible that Custer stopped on the hill to 
look for Reno, and that this gave the Indians time to get together, 
and that then Custer supposed that the force he had to meet was 
too strong. Yet the Cheyennes say that at first only ten Indians 
were present at the ford to oppose any charge that might have 
been made. The hill on which the monument stands seems well 
enough chosen for defense, but the borders of the ridge are cut 
by many little ravines and draws, which provided effective shelter 
for the Indians' approach. 

Assuming that for whatever reason Custer could not or would 
not cross the river and charge through the camp, a plan of defense 
better than the one he adopted would have been to get down on 
the flat of the river bottom, where a steady body of men fighting 
coolly under competent officers could have worn out the Indians, 
who would have left them after a day of fighting. If Custer had 
kept moving and either crossed the river at the ford at the mouth 
of the dry gulch toward which Crittenden and Calhoun seem to 
have been going when killed, or had gone down the river, crossed 
there, and come up the flat, I have no doubt that the Indians would 
have run. If Crittenden and Calhoun's companies had crossed 
the ford and show^n Custer the way he would no doubt have fol- 
lowed them, and the day would have turned out differently. 



XXVII 

CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 
1876 

After the Custer battle the hostile Indians engaged in it 
separated and scattered in different camps. During the month 
of August various small fights took place in the northern country. 
In September the camp of American Horse — Sioux — was cap- 
tured at Slim Buttes, in South Dakota. General Crook, after 
long and fruitless marches in Wyoming and Montana, returned 
to the Black Hills and remained there for a time. In October a 
body of troops, escorting a wagon-train from Glendive to the 
cantonment at Tongue River, was attacked by Indians under the 
leadership of Sitting Bull. A little later in October Red Cloud's 
camp was surrounded and captured, and his horses were taken. 
Of the Cheyennes Two Moon's band remained in the general 
vicinity of the Tongue River and the Rosebud and, avoiding the 
soldiers, occupied themselves in killing buffalo and preparing food 
for the winter. Dull Knife's large village, which for some time 
was on Powder River, at length disappeared and it was not known 
what had become of it. 

General Crook had determined on a winter campaign, and in 
the autumn preparations were made to send out a military ex- 
pedition under General Ranald S. Mackenzie into the country of 
the Indians to look up hostile camps. The troops chosen con- 
sisted of eleven companies of cavalry from the Second, Third and 
Fifth Regiments, four companies of the Fourth Artillery, dis- 
mounted, and eleven companies of infantry from the Fourth, 
Ninth, Fourteenth and Twenty-fifth Regiments, under Colonel 
R. I. Dodge, together with about four hundred Indian scouts — 
Pawnees, Sioux, Arapahoes, Shoshoni, Bannocks, and a few 
Cheyennes. Two hundred Crow scouts were expected, but did 
not join the expedition until after the fighting was over. A train 

346 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 347 

of one hundred and sixty-eight wagons and seven ambulances 
transported the suppHes, and there was a pack-train of four hun- 
dred mules. The drivers and their assistants and the packers 
numbered about two hundred and eighty-five men. In all, 
therefore, this was a force of something over two thousand people. 

The different scouts, divided according to their tribes, were 
commanded by Lieutenant W. P. Clark, Second Cavalry; Lieu- 
tenant W. S. Schuyler, Fifth Cavalry; Hayden Delaney, Ninth 
Infantry; Major Frank North, of the Pawnee scouts; while the 
few Cheyenne scouts were in charge of William Rowland, who had 
married into the tribe in 1850 and been associated with them ever 
since. 

Preparations for the expedition went forward rather de- 
liberately, but were about completed by the middle of October. 
The first operation was the capture of Red Cloud's village at Pine 
Ridge Agency, near Fort Robinson. During the summer of 1876 
Red Cloud had been at peace, but General Crook did not trust 
the young men of the camp and deemed it safer to set them all 
afoot than to give them the opportunity to go off to join the 
hostile camps. Red Cloud's camp was located in the hills near 
Chadron Creek, about forty miles from Pine Ridge Agency. He 
had been ordered by the Indian agent to move in close to the 
agency, but had not done so and the agent feared that he would 
break out into hostility, and finally applied to General Crook for 
force to compel him to move in. General Mackenzie started 
from Camp Robinson with sLx companies of the Fourth and two 
of the Fifth Cavalry, and Indian scouts were needed. Major 
Frank North, who, with his Pawnee scouts, was on his way to 
Camp Robinson, received October 22 an order to present himself 
that day at the department headquarters in the field. 

The horses furnished the Pawnee scouts were not in good 
condition, but Major North selected forty-eight men, and that 
same night overtook General iMackenzie. Twenty miles beyond 
where they met, the trails forked, one branch leading to Red 
Cloud's camp, the other to that of Swift Bear. General ]\Iac- 
kenzie, with four companies of cavalry and twenty-four Pawnee 
scouts under Major North, took the left-hand trail to Red Cloud's 
camp, while Major Gordon, with the same number of Pawnee 
scouts under Captain North, and four companies of cavalry, set 



348 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

out for Swift Bear's camp. General Mackenzie proceeded through 
the darkness until the crowing of a rooster notified his scouts that 
people were near. Todd Randall, a scout with a Sioux wife, de- 
clared that they must be close to Red Cloud's camp, since Red 
Cloud had a lot of chickens. The camp was surrounded with- 
out alarming the Indians, and it was not until after daylight that 
Randall, sent out by General Mackenzie, announced to the still 
sleeping village that they were surrounded and must surrender. 
No men came out of their lodges, but the women and children 
made a rush for the brush, to hide there. There was no resistance, 
and no shots were fired. The Pawnees charged through the vil- 
lage and rounded up the horses, which were driven to the rear. 
A Sioux boy showed great courage in trying to run off a bunch 
of ponies, but left them after a few shots had been fired at him. 

The women, when they had been gathered together, were 
directed to go to the bunch of horses and select enough of them 
to pack their camp equipage and utensils, and then to set out 
for Camp Robinson. The women, however, would do nothing, 
and finally General Mackenzie told them that if they did not 
move he would burn the village. They still remained obstinate 
and would not stir until the soldiers began to set fire to the lodges. 
Then they swiftly set to work. 

Swift Bear's village had been captured in essentially the 
same way. The two columns came together; the captives being 
one hundred and twenty men and their families, together with 
arms and ammunition, and more than three hundred horses.^ 
The captured Indians were held under guard at Camp Robinson, 
and the horses a little later were sent on, in charge of the Pawnees, 
to Fort Laramie. 

The Big Horn expedition started from Fort Fetterman, No- 
vember 14, 1876. It was to march north, thoroughly scouting 
the country for signs of Indians, and if a trail of any considerable 
body was found, to follow the trail and locate the village. This 
work would naturally fall on the cavalry under General Mac- 
kenzie with the pack-train, which, if necessary, could fall back 
on the column of infantry and the wagon-train for supplies. 

The North Platte River was crossed through floating ice, and 

1 Record of Engagements says four hundred warriors and seven hundred 
horses. 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 349 

the march was taken for old Fort Reno, which had long before 
been abandoned. This point was made in four days, a distance 
of ninety miles. The country was thoroughly examined by the 
Indian scouts, who travelled with their usual caution, keeping 
their own movements concealed, but letting nothing escape them. 
The weather was very cold and from time to time snow fell. At 
old Fort Reno the command was joined by the Shoshoni scouts 
under Tom Cosgrove, an old frontiersman. 

On November 20, a party of scouts came in with a young 
Cheyenne Indian^ whom they had captured. He said that he 
was one of a small party camped on upper Powder River, and 
that Crazy Horse, the Sioux, was camped on the Rosebud River, 
near the big bend, where General Crook had had his fight with 
the Sioux and Chej^ennes on June 17. 

On November 22, the command moved to Crazy Woman's 
fork of Powder River, and established a camp, parking their 
wagons, to be left there with a strong guard under Major Furey, 
the quartermaster. Ten days' rations were laid out, and am- 
munition issued, and preparations made to set out for the village 
of Crazy Horse. 

Early next morning a Cheyenne Indian from Red Cloud 
Agency came in and reported that the camp to which young 
Beaver Dam belonged had started to join Crazy Horse, and also 
that there was a large Cheyenne village hidden in the Big Horn 
Mountains near the head of the very stream the command was 
on. General Mackenzie was ordered to take the Indian scouts 
and all the cavalry, and to start out to find this village. His 
force consisted of about 1100 officers and men, of whom one- 
third were Indian scouts. The infantry and one company of 
cavalry were left behind with the wagons. Presumably it was 
here that Cheyenne scouts discovered the troops, as told further 
on, in young Two Moon's narrative. 

The fighting force set out early in the morning — November 
24 — marched twelve miles up Crazy Woman, and camped in a 
spot well hidden among the foothills of the mountains. Captain 
Lawton,^ Fourth Cavalry, General JVIackenzie's field quarter- 
master, was sent twelve hours ahead of the command to prepare 

1 Beaver Dam, by name. 

2 General Lawton, killed in the Philippines. 



350 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

stream crossings and ravines. With him went John B. Sharp, 
his wagon-master, a man of remarkable efficiency. They did a 
great amount of work in frozen ground to smooth the way for 
the command, but even so the next day's journey was difficult. 
The ground was much cut up by steep-sided ravines, and prog- 
ress was slow. By this time the Arapaho scouts had discovered 
the Indian village. It was not far off. Toward evening the 
command halted, waiting for dark and the rising of the moon; 
and as soon as it became light enough to travel set out again, and 
moved on through the night over trails sometimes exceedingly 
rough, sometimes so narrow that only one horse could pass along. 
Every precaution was taken that no noise should be made. Or- 
ders were given that no one should smoke, and no one should 
light a match, but these orders were not obeyed, and there was 
considerable smoking. The intention, of course, was to surprise 
the village, which, however, had for days been aware of the 
proximity of the troops, and but for the obstinacy of the chief 
of the Fox Soldier band would have packed up and gone that 
day. 

As the command drew nearer to the village, the Indian scouts, 
with senses keener and better trained than those of the white 
men, could hear the distant sounds of the drum, and sometimes 
the wind bore faintly to their ears the sound of dance songs. 
During the frequent halts made to permit the troops to close up, 
some of the men, tired by the hard night march, stretched them- 
selves on the ground, with the bridle-reins of their horses twisted 
about their wrists, and slumbered quietly, notwithstanding the 
bitter cold. Then would come the word to advance and, led by 
the Indian scouts, the column moved on again. 

Gradually from up the valley the sounds of the village be- 
came distinct to all. The camp was close now. From the front 
came more plainly the sound of drumming and singing, while 
from the rear was heard the low murmur of horses' hoofs as the 
column, stretched out for a mile or two, slowly closed up and each 
man took his place. The Indian scouts were looking and listen- 
ing, eagerly searching for any sign that the hostiles were alarmed. 
The younger soldiers were excited, impatient, and anxious to push 
on, the old ones self-contained and waiting for orders. The mo- 
ment for the attack was at hand. 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 351 

On the left of the valley rode the Shoshoni and Bannocks, 
led by Tom Cosgrove and Lieutenant Schuyler. On the right 
rode Major Frank North and his brother Luther, followed by 
the Pawnees. Up the centre came the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, 
and Sioux, under William Rowland, Lieutenants Clark and 
Delaney. 

The gray dawn of November 26 was just breaking when the 
order was given to charge, and the column rushed out into the 
wider valley, where were seen standing the white lodges of the 
Cheyennes. Soon the thunder of many hoofs and the loud war 
songs of some of the Indian scouts, which their officers could not 
check, reached the ears of the people in the camp, many of whom 
had just gone to bed. Warning cries were heard, and as the 
shooting began men, women, and children rushed from the lodges. 

The Pawnees had been ordered to keep up the left bank of 
the stream until they had passed the village, and then to swing 
across the stream and meet the cavalry that was coming up the 
right bank, thus surrounding the village. Just before they reached 
the lodges, an English-speaking Pawnee, Ralph Weeks, who was 
with General Mackenzie, shouted across the creek to the Pawnees 
to cross over to the right bank, as there was no trail up the side 
the Pawnees were on. Major North at once turned down the 
bank into the stream and crossed, and the Pawnees moved along 
abreast of the Shoshoni, who at length turned to the left, and went 
up on the mountainside that overlooked the village. The Paw- 
nees kept on into the village. 

The first lodges at the end of the village were near the mouth 
of a dry creek full of underbrush and small trees. Just before 
the Pawnees entered the village, a blanketed form sprang from 
this underbrush almost in front of Captain Luther North, threw 
a gun to the shoulder and fired. At the same instant Captain 
North swung around in the saddle to the right and shot at this 
form. The two rifles sounded almost together, and the Chey- 
enne boy, a son of Dull Knife, fell, and the passing Pawnees 
counted coup on his body. 

Many of the Cheyennes had not time to save anything except 
their lives. Some of them rushed naked from their beds, carrrying 
cartridge belts in one hand, and rifles in the other, and hurried 
their w^omen and children up the ravines on to the bluffs and 



352 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

among the rocks behind the village. Elk River, more thought- 
ful of his family than of fighting, cut a long slit through the back 
of his lodge with his knife, drove out the women and the little 
ones, helped them to cover, and then returned to try to save the 
horses, usually the first things looked after by the Indians. 

A group of Cheyennes had taken possession of a ravine, and 
were dimly seen hurrying through the mist, and trying to get in 
front of and to hold back the troops. Lieutenant McKinney, 
with his company of the Fourth Cavalry, was sent to this place 
to dislodge them. He set out, but presently, before reaching a 
ravine with cut banks which could not be crossed and which he 
could not yet see, the Indians fired upon him and his command, 
killing McKinney, wounding a number of men and killing several 
horses. Lieutenant McKinney received seven wounds, four of 
which were fatal. The troops dismounted, and, charging into the 
ravine, killed all the Cheyennes who were still there. Some of 
these were Tall Bull, Walking Whirlwind, Burns Red (in the 
Sun), Walking Calf, Hawks Visit, and Four Spirits. Scabby 
was badly wounded and died in two days. Curly was badly 
wounded but lived. Two Bulls, who was wounded, is still living. 
White Shield, Yellow Eagle, and Bull Hump, had been with this 
party, but had gone before the soldiers charged. 

Meantime, the troops of Captain Wirt Davis of the Fourth 
Cavalry, and Captain Hamilton, Fifth Cavalry, were hotly en- 
gaged, and might have suffered severely but that Lieutenant 
Schuyler took his Shoshoni scouts up among the rocks above the 
Cheyennes, and by a hot fire drove them away. Captain Hamil- 
ton showed great bravery and even sabred one or more of the 
Indians. 

By this time the Cheyennes had all retreated to the moun- 
tainside above the camp, and the fighting was confined to long- 
range shooting. The Pawnees charged through the village to 
the south end, and then crossed back to the west side, and Ma- 
jor North and his brother there left their horses and climbed 
up on a knoll where there were perhaps twenty or thirty sol- 
diers. Other soldiers were in groups farther to the west. Major 
North sent fifteen Pawnees on foot up the low swale to the west, 
and told them to try and climb up the mountain and get around 
behind the Cheyennes. The Pawnees started, but when they 




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CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 353 

had gone part way up they came out in sight of the troops that 
were over to the right, and the soldiers, supposing them to be 
Cheyennes, began to shoot at them, so that the scouts had to 
get under cover behind the rocks and then to creep back to the 
village. 

About two o'clock Major North and the Pawnees were or- 
dered to go into the village and camp there, and destroy it. The 
lodges were pulled down, the lodge-poles heaped together, and 
clothing, weapons, dried meat, robes — all were piled together 
ready for burning. 

In the village were many articles which had belonged to the 
Seventh Cavalry or its members, for Dull Knife's village had taken 
active part in the Custer fight. One of the most interesting of 
these was a roster book of a first sergeant of the Seventh Cavalry, 
giving many details about the troop. The book had been cap- 
tured by an Indian who had filled it with his drawings. It came 
into the possession of Colonel Homer W. Wheeler, and was de- 
posited in the Museum of the Military Service Institution at 
Governor's Island, New York. Years later it passed to a dealer, 
from whom it was purchased by John Jay White, of New York, 
and finally was given to me to take out to the Cheyenne reserva- 
tion to see whether I could identify the artist who had illustrated 
it. Bull Hump, the son of Dull Knife, and Old Bear, both of 
whom had been in Dull Knife's village, instantly recognized the 
book as the property of High Bear, who had drawn the pictures. 

When the Pawnees kindled their fires for cooking supper the 
Cheyennes from the hillsides began to shoot at them at long 
range, and to drop bullets close to the fire. One Cheyenne had 
a heavy gun, and at intervals of about ten minutes would fire a 
shot at the Pawnee cook-fire. While Major North and his brother 
were sitting on a log near the fire a shot killed a mule about 
twenty feet in front of them. More than once dirt knocked up 
by the bullets flew into the frying-pan, and a bullet knocked a tin 
cup off a log on the other side of the fire. At length Major 
North had the Pawnees build a breastwork of bundles of captured 
dried meat on the other side of the fire, and behind this shelter 
they ate their food in quietness. That night the village was 
fired, and from the hills the Cheyennes saw their property being 
destroyed. In the dead of winter, without food or shelter of any 



354 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

sort, they sat or stood on the mountainside and saw all that they 
owned — their subsistence and their homes — disappear. 

In the first charge that morning many Cheyenne horses had 
been captured, but they had not got them all. Some of the In- 
dians had saved their horses, but others grazing out in the hills 
had not been reached either by the Cheyennes or by the troops. 
Lieutenant Wheeler and some of his men had saved about fifty 
that the Indians were trying to run off. 

Between the border of the village and the long rocky ridge 
behind which a considerable number of Cheyennes were hidden, 
a band of about one hundred Cheyenne horses were feeding 
within two hundred or three hundred yards of the Cheyenne 
breastworks, and three-fourths of a mile from the Pawnee camp. 
By keeping among the bushes in the bed of the stream it was pos- 
sible to approach within two hundred yards of them. The Indian 
scouts with the troops made two or three efforts to get them. A 
Sioux scout. Three Bears, with two or three companions rode 
up through the bushes and made a dash for the horses, but the 
Indians behind the ridge opened such a hot fire on them that Three 
Bears and his party turned and galloped back. A little later 
another party of scouts tried to get them and failed. Both these 
attempts were witnessed from the Pawnee camp, and the failures 
to get the horses made them seem all the more desirable. Cap- 
tain North asked permission of his brother to take one of their 
scouts and try to bring these horses in, and after some hesitation 
he assented. 

When the two men left the bushes they lay well down on the 
necks of their horses and urged them at full speed toward the 
Cheyenne herd. Each carried a blanket over his arm, and as 
soon as they were between the horses and the ridge they began to 
shake the blankets and yell. The horses were not disposed to 
move, but by running back and forth behind them they were 
finally started and driven at full speed down to the camp. During 
all this time the Indians behind the ridge were firing at the scouts 
as fast as they could load, but though four horses were killed and 
several others wounded, the men came in without a scratch and 
with nearly one hundred head of Cheyenne horses. 

The morning after the destruction of the village no enemies 
were to be seen^ and Indian scouts sent out found that the Chey- 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 355 

ennes had gone away to a distance of six miles. On November 
27, therefore, the troops moved away carrying, under the special 
charge of Lieutenant Wheeler, their dead on the backs of pack 
mules, and their wounded on travois made of lodge-poles taken 
from the village. Two or three days later they reached the main 
camp. On the way back they met two parties of miners headed 
for the Big Horn Mountains. The miners were advised not to 
go on until the Cheyennes had left the country, but, laughing, 
they said confidently that they believed they would take their 
chances. One of the parties was attacked by five Sioux, who 
killed one of the men and took everything they possessed. All 
the members of the other party were killed. 

The Crow scouts, seventy-six in number, under command of 
IMajor Randall, reached the camp about Christmas time, and a 
little later the command marched to Fort Laramie. The nar- 
ratives of this fight by Cheyennes who were in the village, to be 
given later, explain their views of the battle and tell also of the 
route followed by the people on their way to Crazy Horse's camp. 
They are of peculiar interest when compared with the story given 
by Captain John Bourke, by far the best narrative that we have 
of this fight, but written wholly from the military point of 
view. 

I have pointed out that the troops that attacked Dull Knife's 
village supposed that they had surprised it, but the Cheyenne 
account of the fight and the events immediately preceding it 
show that the proximity of the troops was known to the Indians 
days in advance of the attack. They might readily have escaped 
and undoubtedly would have done so except for the obstinacy and 
arrogance of Last Bull — at that time chief of the Fox Soldiers — 
who seems to have cowed not only the chiefs of the tribes but also 
the owners of the two great medicines of the Cheyennes and the 
chiefs of the other soldier bands. 

In this village Dull Knife and Wild Hog were the principal 
chiefs. Two Moon was there, and the two keepers of the great 
mysteries of the Cheyennes, Black Hairy Dog, keeper of the med- 
icine arrows, and Coal Bear, of the sacred hat. 

I have received the story of the fight from many of the people 
who were in the village, among them young Two Moon, nephew 
of old Two Moon; Little Hawk, a son of old Gentle Horse, a 



356 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

famous Cheyenne of the old war times; other men, and some 
women. 

The camp had been over on the west side of the Big Horn 
Mountains on the head of the Big Horn River. After a time it 
moved over to Powder River, and they camped near the mouth 
of the little Striped Stick Creek.^ Some young men, who had 
been out hunting antelope and deer and had gone some distance 
down Powder River, told the people when they reached camp at 
night that they had seen the tracks of many horses travelling 
down the river on the divide south of Powder River. 

Next morning the head men called a meeting and decided to 
send out four men to learn what the tracks meant — by whom 
they were made. They directed two chiefs to go out and bring 
in certain men for this duty. The two chiefs went to the lodge of 
Hail,2 took him by both arms and brought him to the meeting. 
They then went to get Crow Necklace,^ and brought him. Then 
they brought young Two Moon,* then High Wolf.^ These four 
men were set in line and the chiefs spoke to them. 

"We have chosen you four men," they said, "because we can 
depend on you to go out and follow this trail. When you find it, 
stick to it; do not leave it. It may be that it will join the trail 
made by some other party. We depend on you to find out about 
this and to return and let us know. Now go and saddle up, and 
after you have saddled your horses ride back here to this meet- 
ing." 

After they had returned to the chiefs, an old man cried through 
the camp, saying: "Here are four men for whom we shall look, 
and for whose words we shall listen. They are going out to look 
for this party and to bring back news of it." 

The four scouts started, and camped the first night on Elk 
Mountain Creek. There was a little snow on the ground and it 
was cold. Next morning they started and travelled southeast, 
and that night camped on Visiting Creek. The next day they 
travelled to War Bonnet Ridge — so called from three trees which 
at a distance look like a war bonnet — and went on beyond to 
House Ridge — from rocks that look like a house. They did not 

1 Tslns kah'nl kS mftk'. 2 Au'tsit 6. 

^ Ohk'tse woh'tan ah. * Ish'I eyo nia'sl. 

^ Hohni'o hka hi yo. 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 357 

keep close together, but rode at a distance one from another look- 
ing for trails and closely watching the country. They travelled 
slowly, and at every ridge stopped and looked for a long time. 

From this place they struck north toward Powder River, and 
came down the ridge until they reached a wagon-road which went 
to Powder River. It was now night and snowing, Ilail, the 
oldest man of the party, said : " We can take this road and follow 
it down, crossing Powder River and going to those buttes over 
there, and can stay there until morning. From there we can see 
much country." When they reached this hill they went around 
behind it and stopped there, for Hail said : " It is useless to climb 
up there until near daylight." When it began to grow light 
Hail said: "Now let us climb this hill, and when day comes be 
ready to look over the ridge up and down Powder River Valley." 

As soon as they reached the top of the hill they could see 
smoke rising in a bend on the river below them, and as the light 
grew tents were seen standing there in a long line and looking 
like one big tent. As they watched they saw the soldiers and 
scouts turn loose their horses. One herd came straight to the 
foot of the hill the Cheyennes were on and stopped there. The 
Indian scouts took their horses across Powder River to the south- 
east side. Two of the guards with the horses near the Cheyennes 
rode a couple of hundred yards away from the horses and up on a 
high point, and remained there watching the horses. It was 
hard for the Cheyennes to keep out of sight of these men. They 
did so only by lying flat on the ground. 

Crow Necklace proposed to charge down on the horses and 
drive them away, but Hail would not consent. Crow Necklace 
insisted, but Hail still refused, saying: "Look at the snow that 
fell last night; it is deep. There are many people here. They 
might easily enough overtake and catch us. Look at the distance 
to the foot of the mountains before we could get into the breaks. 
It is a long, level road, and they would surely overtake us before 
we got there." Finally Crow Necklace ceased urging this. The 
Cheyennes could not get away from this place without being seen, 
and all day long they remained there waiting and watching. In 
the afternoon, not long before the sun set, the soldiers began to 
move the horses toward camp. After the sun had gone down 
and it was dark the Cheyennes came down from the hill and rode 



358 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

to within half a mile of the soldiers' camp. By that time the 
horses of the troops were all tied to a long picket-line. The four 
Cheyennes dismounted and tied their horses, intending to approach 
the camp on foot. After they had tied the horses, however, Two 
Moon suggested that two should go to the camp and two remain 
with the horses. Two Moon was chosen to go to the camp and 
asked: "Who will go with me?" Crow Necklace said: "I will 
go." Two Moon said: "We may have an opportunity to get a 
change of saddle-horses down there." 

The two went down the stream toward the camp. When 
they reached the soldier camp, they walked straight on, think- 
ing that in this way there was less likelihood that they would be 
suspected than if they tried to hide. Just at the edge of the 
camp, they found a large fire built, and about it Indian scouts 
playing "hands." These were Shoshoni and Arapaho scouts. 
They recognized two Cheyennes standing by the fire singing. 
Crow and Wolf Satchel (i. e., possibly Sack), and they thought 
that there must be more Cheyennes with the troops. 

After a little while they left this place and went around be- 
low the camp, and there found the camp of the Pawnees. They 
stayed around the camp for a long time, until the fires died down 
and the only lights seen were those in the tents. The Indian 
scouts were not in tents, but were living in shelters built of bent 
willows covered with canvas, and some had built war lodges of 
poles. 

At the place where the Pawnees were camped, they cut loose 
three horses and led them back around the outside of the camp 
to where they had come from. When they came around to the 
Arapaho camp, they could see there a man who was frying cakes 
and had quite a pile of them. Two Moon said : " We had better 
go in here and get something to eat." They were hungry. They 
turned loose the horses to go into the Arapaho lodge. The scouts 
in the camp were singing, and as the two Cheyennes were about 
to go into the camp two soldiers rode up and spoke to the Arapa- 
hoes, and then someone called out: "Stop singing, and keep a 
good lookout." The singing stopped, and all the Arapahoes went 
into their lodges. As the last man went in. Two Moon and Crow 
Necklace stepped up and cut loose three horses, Two Moon tak- 
ing two and Crow Necklace taking one, and led them off. 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 359 

When they got to where they had left Hail and High Wolf, 
they found these two sound asleep and all four horses gone. The 
two men had let their horses go, so that they might feed, and they 
had wandered off while the men were asleep. When they awoke 
and found their horses gone, one of them jumped on behind Two 
Moon and they set out after their own horses, which at last they 
overtook travelling back toward the Cheyenne camp. 

While these four scouts had been gone, the camp had moved 
over the divide to another little creek. The sun had risen only a 
little way when they came in sight of the camp, and when they 
were seen coming the people began to gather in the middle of 
the camp, and the scouts rode on to the centre of the village and 
stopped there. There they reported that they had found many 
soldiers down on the main Powder River. "There were four 
different languages spoken in the camp," they said: "Pawnee, 
Shoshoni, Arapaho, and Cheyenne." Two Moon said: "If they 
reach this camp I think it will be a big fight." 

When the chiefs learned that the soldiers were near. Black 
Hairy Dog wished to move camp along the foot of the mountains, 
to join the large Sioux camp which was not far off, but Last Bull, 
one of the soldier chiefs, said: "No, we will stay here and fight." 
On the fourth night after the scouts had got in, they learned that 
the soldiers were close to them. That evening the chiefs had 
again said: "Let us go up on the mountainside and throw up 
breastworks behind which the women and children can stay. 
There are so many of them that we cannot carry them all away 
if we are attacked." "No," said Last Bull. "We will stay here." 
He was determined to do this. He said also: "We will dance 
here all night." Before sundown they built a "skunk"; that is, 
a pile of wood for a fire to dance by, and after dark they set this 
on fire and began to have a dance. During the evening a man 
named Sits in the Night ^ took his horses down below the camp, 
and later went down to look at them to see if they were safe. 
Before he reached the horses, but when near enough to see them, 
he saw someone driving the horses away. He turned about and 
came back to the camp without the horses. After he had re- 
turned, an old man cried about the camp: "Sits in the Night 
has some news to tell. He went down to look for his horses, and 

1 Tal Iv'hkok. 



360 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

found someone driving them away. Go to his lodge and hear 
the news." The people began to run from all directions, to hear 
what was to be told. Sits in the Night spoke and said : " I reached 
my horses in time to see people driving them off, and whipping 
them. I was so near that I could hear the blows as they struck 
them. I think the soldiers are there, for further down the stream 
I heard a rumbling noise." An old crier called out through 
the camp: "They have already taken Sits in the Night's 
horses; we had better look about for a place to build breast- 
works." 

Crow Split Nose, chief of the Crooked Lances (Him' 6 we 
yuhk is), spoke to the people, and had an old man come to his 
side and call it out, saying: "I think it would be a good idea for 
the women and children to tear down the lodges, and take them 
up to that cut bank where there is a good place to throw up 
breastworks. They should do this at once." The old man re- 
peated this, and in a short time those of the people whose horses 
were nearby packed them and were ready to move. Mean- 
time, however, Last Bull, chief of the Fox Soldiers, had called 
to his old crier and ordered him to call in the Fox Soldiers. When 
the Fox Soldiers had come together, he ordered them to permit 
no one to leave the camp. Many people had already started for 
the place advised by Crow Split Nose, but were turned back by 
the Fox Soldiers, and told to return to the camp and unpack. 
Last Bull said: "No one shall leave the camp to-night." He 
said also: "We will stay up all night and dance." A little later 
Crow Split Nose and Last Bull met, and Last Bull said to the 
other: "You will not be the only man killed if we are attacked 
by the white soldiers; what are you afraid of?" 

Crow Split Nose replied: "I do not care for myself; I am 
thinking of the women and children. I want to get them up 
there where they will be safe, so that only we men will be left in 
the camp ready to fight." 

"You will know in the morning what is to happen; wait till 
the morning." 

Young Two Moon danced all night, and toward daylight went 
to his lodge, which was close to the mountains, and awoke all 
his people, telling them that they had better get up; that day- 
light was coming and something might happen. These were his 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 361 

father and his father's two wives. They jumped up, dressed, 
and began to pack. It was not yet Hght. 

Very early in the morning Black Hairy Dog untied all his 
horses, and took them up on the hill. Little Hawk had gone to 
his lodge and was lying on his back, half awake, looking up through 
the smoke hole of the lodge. It was just beginning to show a 
little light. He heard someone call — it seemed a long way off — 
"Get your guns. The camp is charged. They are coming." It 
was Black Hairy Dog who cried. At the same time there was 
the flash of shots and the sound of guns down the valley. 

When the soldiers charged, the Cheyennes at the lower end 
of the camp were nearly all on foot, but most of those at the 
upper end were on their horses, and got away on horseback. The 
Indian scouts charged the camp on the south side, and some 
soldiers came on the north side. They were shooting all the time. 
The first enemies who got into the camp were the Indian scouts. 

At the first sound of the fighting, young Two IVIoon mounted 
his horse and rode down through the middle of the camp. The 
shooting was quick; he did not quite get to where his friend Crow 
Necklace was, but saw him wearing a war bonnet and riding a 
spotted horse. Crow Necklace rode around on the south side of 
the camp, and Two Moon turned and went on the north side. 
He was wearing a war bonnet whose tails reached the ground. 
When Two Moon made his charge, four troops of soldiers were 
coming up in line. He charged across the camp to the south 
side, and as he reached it he saw his friend, Crow Necklace, and 
a moment afterward saw him fall from his horse. When he 
reached the gulch where most of the people had gone up, he saw 
none of them. He was ahead of the soldiers, who were coming 
toward the camp. From the camp a deep gulch ran into the moun- 
tains, with high cliffs on either side. Some of the people ran up 
this gulch, and some ran up another gulch, until they reached the 
forks of the creek. Little Hawk was with these. Just as they 
reached a place where they were going to build up their breast- 
works, two companies of cavalry on gray horses dashed up to 
within thirty yards of them and stopped. Yellow Eagle fired 
the first shot, and knocked an oflficer out of his saddle, and the 
troops backed their horses down the slope out of sight. Three 
men rushed forward to count coup on this oflBcer; Yellow Eagle 



362 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

counted the first coup and got the officer's gun; Two Bulls counted 
the second, and Bull Hump the third. Little Wolf had gone up 
the big gulch leading a number of people, and had lost some men, 
but he stood out there in the open to let the others get out of 
sight — most of them women and children — and many bullets were 
fired at him. 

Young Two Moon kept on his way up the side gulch, and at 
a little round knoll overtook three men, Stump, Red Winged 
Woodpecker, and Split Eye, and presently another man, Brave 
Bear, overtook them. They dismounted here. Brave Bear 
said: "Some of our friends are up this deep gulch. I think they 
are in a bad place." Some distance behind them the soldiers 
had now fallen in line, the gray-horse company in the middle, 
and were charging toward the camp at a lope. Another company 
was marching toward the knoll where these five men were, and 
firing at them. The gray-horse company came to the mouth of 
the gulch up which the people had gone, and the Cheyennes 
who were in it fired at them, and a soldier fell from his horse. 
Two Cheyennes jumped out from the gulch and took his gun 
and belt. The soldiers fell back and dismounted and began to 
fire into the gulch as fast as they could. The deep gulch ran up 
into the hills and opened out into a wide flat. The gray-horse 
company stood at the mouth of the gulch, while the black-horse 
troop watched the flat above. Two Moon thought to himself: 
"My friends are in a very bad place; I fear they will all 
be killed." 

In the gulch Yellow Nose was the only man on horseback. 
He rode around and came out through the flat, and came back 
to just above where these five men were, and when he reached 
the top of the hill three of them joined him. Young Two Moon 
and Brave Bear charged down toward the soldiers, who turned 
and faced them. They had intended to go into the Cheyenne 
camp, but before reaching it they saw that the Indian scouts 
were in it. They turned back to the hills and there separated. 
Brave Bear's horse was killed, and he got away on foot. Two 
Moon went to the breastworks, where the women and children 
were. Nine men were killed in the gulch at the mouth of which 
the officer had been killed. Those who were saved ran across 
one by one to another gulch. 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 363 

At the breastworks Two Moon changed horses and rode off 
east. Some distance away was a man coming down from a high 
hill, and before the man was very close to him he saw that it was 
Beaver Dam, He was mounted on a cream-colored horse with a 
white mane and tail, which was one of those taken from Sits in 
the Night the night before. The two men rode up on a little 
ridge, and when the Cheyennes saw them and recognized the horse 
they charged down on them. Gypsum, all of whose sons had been 
killed in the gulch, tried to kill Beaver Dam, thinking that he was 
with the soldiers, but Beaver Dam said: "I am not a scout for 
the soldiers. I left Sitting Bull's camp to come home, and on 
my way was captured by the Arapahoes and taken into their 
camp. I was in the soldier camp the night you took those three 
horses." Gypsum would not believe what he said, but Beaver 
Dam kept repeating: "We were quite a party coming home, and 
I was sent on foot to find out who some people were that we 
had seen. I saw that they were Indians, and went up to them 
and found out that they were the scouts of these soldiers. I do 
not know where my party is; they may have gone back to Sitting 
Bull's camp. White Bull is there now." The Cheyennes were 
still holding Gypsum back to keep him from harming Beaver Dam, 
who kept on talking. "I came near being killed by the scouts, 
and now I get back home I am going to be killed here. I only 
escaped because the Arapahoes let me go, and gave me this horse 
to ride away on. Until to-day I have been travelling on foot. 
When the Arapahoes turned me loose, they told me to choose any 
horse I liked. I knew this horse to be a good running horse, and 
I chose it." 

Left Handed Wolf said to Gypsum: "This man has told his 
story and it is not long since he left us. Let him alone." 

"No," replied Gypsum, "I shall kill him. My sons are 
dead." About this they quarrelled, and almost fought among 
themselves. Left Handed Wolf said: "This man did not kill 
your sons. You hear those people shooting. They have not 
ceased since we have been here. They killed your sons. Fight 
them. If you do not let this man alone I will lay my whip on 
you." He rode up to where they were holding Gypsum and 
lashed him over the head with his quirt. They put Beaver Dam 
with the women. All along the foothills people were fighting. 



364 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

When Beaver Dam had been sent to the women the men 
started back to the fight. They could see a gray-horse troop of 
soldiers on foot marching toward a little ridge and started down 
toward them. Beyond this little ridge there were five Cheyennes. 

When they reached the third ridge from the soldiers they had 
to cross an open space in order to get to the second ridge. The 
soldiers had ascended the ridge that they were on so far that the 
Cheyennes could see the tops of their heads when they rose up to 
fire. The Cheyennes could not reach the place where the five 
men were. They had to stop at the second ridge. From where 
the Cheyennes were they tried to do what they could to save the 
five men, who had no way of escape from the soldiers. They 
kept firing, hoping to keep the soldiers back — to keep them from 
coming over the ridge. Presently they looked behind them and 
saw coming a man riding on a pacing horse. It would pace a 
little while and then lope. Soon they saw that it was White 
Shield. His horse had been shot through the body. He rode 
up close to Yellow Nose and said to him: "If I were a noted man 
in the tribe as you are I would never be standing behind any hill. 
Look at the clothing you wear; you are all dressed up. Why do 
you not do something? Look at your friends over there. We 
ought to save them." Yellow Nose replied: "What my friend 
says is true. If those soldiers reach the top of the hill they will 
kill those men who are lying behind it. We must protect them. 
Now, mount your horses; form a line along this ridge." Yellow 
Nose was below — the main force was up on the hill. By this 
time a good number of Cheyennes, perhaps twenty or more, had 
gathered there. They cried: "Charge," and dashed toward 
the upper — right-hand — end of the gray-horse company. Every 
one of the twenty wore a war bonnet. When they made the 
charge some of the soldiers began to shoot at them from one side 
and turned them. They did not quite reach the gray-horse 
company. This was the closest that they got to the soldiers. 
The five men behind the ridge had got together in a circle and 
were hugging the ground. Young Two Moon recognized one of 
them as Long Jaw. The Cheyennes who had charged now 
turned back over the hill and dismounted and again began to 
shoot. Young Two Moon said to his fellows: "Now do you stay 
here and keep shooting, and I will charge over to those five men 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 3G5 

and find out who they are." He rode over, reached them, and 
dismounted and turned loose his horse which went back over the 
hill to the point he had come from. The men were: Long Jaw, 
Little Horse, White Horse, Braided Locks, and another. While 
they were fighting these soldiers some Cheyennes must have gone 
around behind the soldiers and begun to fire at them, and now 
the gray-horse troop and another troop moved off to the east 
and the six Cheyennes behind the ridge were able to get away 
and save themselves. 

When Lieutenant McKinney fell and the coup was counted on 
him his horse fell also, and Bull Hump, after counting his coup, 
cut away one of the saddle-bags on the horse and started to run 
back. He had only made one or two jiunps when he saw on the 
ground before him a six-shooter and near it another. He picked 
up both and thrust them in his belt, and kept on running, but his 
long infantry rifle, his two six-shooters, and the bag of ammunition 
made a heavy load, and soon he got out of breath and was so 
tired that he could hardly use his legs. He felt that he must 
either drop his load or stop running. He would not give up the 
things that he had captured, and so he had to walk and take the 
bullets. Luckily none of them hit him. 

Yellow Eagle started up a gulch to find a place which some 
women and children could reach and be out of danger. He 
found one place but it was too open. All would have been killed 
had they stopped there. Then he found another place where their 
lives might be saved, but it was hard to reach. Yellow Eagle 
said: "I will go first to lead the way." He was obliged to jump 
into sight of the troops and to run thirty yards before he was out 
of sight. Only one person could go at a time. The soldiers were 
lined up in front of this place where the people had to run, and 
every time a person stepped in sight the guns going off all to- 
gether sounded like a bank caving in. But all crossed in safety 
— ^perhaps twenty-five or thirty people. 

Little Wolf's group suffered, and six were killed. In Yellow 
Eagle's group four men were wounded. In another place, where 
twelve stayed behind to fight while the women and children 
were helped to safety, Bull Hump, White Frog, Two Bulls, and 
Bald Faced Bull were wounded. 

From near the black-horse troop of cavalry a Cheyenne scout 



366 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

rode out northeast to a knoll not far from where a group of Chey- 
ennes were gathered. He had some ammunition and called 
across to those whom he was fighting — of his own tribe: "I am 
obliged to fight against you, but I am leaving on this hUl a lot of 
ammunition." Later, when the Cheyennes got to the place, they 
found there a pile of cartridges. 

E hyoph'sta, the sister of Bald Faced Bull, and Buffalo 
Wallow Woman were camped at the lower end of the camp at 
the mouth of the gulch where the soldiers charged. Many peo- 
ple ran out of their lodges without their robes and reached the 
breastworks without any covering whatever. E hyoph'sta had 
only a little piece of robe. After they were in the breastworks the 
women stood in line there and sang strong heart songs to en- 
courage the fighting men. From this point they could see some 
of their people fighting a group of soldiers. The soldiers on foot 
charged the Cheyennes who retreated. Then the Cheyennes 
charged, and the soldiers retreated to their horses, and then charged 
again. In this way they fought almost all day in the same place. 
During the day Yellow Nose, wounded through the breast from 
the right side to the left, came to the breastworks. They had 
nothing with which to bind up his wound except a strip cut from 
a buffalo-robe. They put this around him, the hair next to the 
skin. After a time White Antelope came to the breastworks 
and said to Buffalo Wallow Woman : " I think your brother, Bald 
Faced Bull, is killed. I saw him fall from his horse over there." 
E hyoph'sta said: "I will go to my brother," and was about to 
start when Bird Bear rode up. When he had heard what White 
Antelope had told, he said : " I will go over and look." The two 
men went and E hyoph'sta followed them, but when she had gone 
part way White Antelope sent her back. Bald Faced Bull was 
found wounded, but was able to get to the breastworks. 

In this battle many men did brave things. White Shield and 
Medicine Bear and Long Jaw and Big Crow showed much bravery. 
It was odd in this fight to see the way in which the loose horses 
ran. When the shooting began they heard the bullets strike the 
lodges beyond them and turned and ran away from this sound and 
the lodges, and so toward the shooting. 

Only one wounded man was taken off the battle-field. This 
was Crawling; who was carried away by two men on foot. He 



CAPTURE OF DULL KNIFE'S VILLAGE 367 

was shot in the leg, and Braided Locks, wearing a war bonnet, 
and Hairy Hand rushed in on foot and carried him away. They 
ran with him until they were out of breath and then threw them- 
selves down on the ground and waited until they had recovered 
breath. At length they reached the stream and waded up it 
until they reached the breastworks. 

The camp had been burned, but about ten lodges on the other 
side of the creek from the main camp were left unburned. That 
night Two Moon went to these ten lodges and found two robes 
and then a third. He put these on his horse, and just as he did 
so he heard someone down the stream utter a yell and fire a 
shot and, as if this had been a signal, firing began from all direc- 
tions. He and his party rode back to the breastworks. That 
night the Cheyennes with what horses they had set out up the 
mountains. 

When they got on top of the ridge, they built big fires and 
slept a little, and before day came arose and began to pack. They 
had no food, and nothing to cook in. Some had robes, and some 
none. 

The next morning j^oung Two Moon, Yellow Eagle, and 
Turtle's Road were sent on far ahead. They had not gone very 
far before they saw a large herd of Cheyenne horses coming to- 
ward them, and driving these horses were five Pawnees going 
in the wrong direction; that is, away from the soldiers. The 
Cheyennes think they must have got lost. The three Chey- 
ennes charged on the Pawnees. The hill down which they charged 
was very steep. The Pawnees left the horses and ran, and other 
Cheyennes came after and chased them over two or three ridges. 
The horse of one of the Pa^vnees gave out, but he jumped on 
behind one of his companions and all got away. The Cheyennes 
got his horse, a gray with a government saddle. Here they got 
seventy-five or eighty horses. The Cheyennes kept on down 
the backbone of the Big Horn Mountains. 

After two camps, six or seven young men started on the back 
trail to go to the old camp to look about for horses, for some of 
the people thought that some horses might have escaped and 
come back to the camp. In this party were Big Head and Walks 
Last. When they reached the camp they found there a good 
number of horses that had been left. The horses must have 



368 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

followed up the only trail that led up into the big deep canyon 
by the breastworks into which the people had run. 

In all this time the people had nothing to eat except a few 
horses that they killed. They had no kettles to cook food in, 
and in cooking the horses' meat they built great heaped-up fires 
of ash or box-elder or cottonwood, and when this had burned 
down to coals they threw the meat on it, and kept turning it 
until it was cooked. 

Major North, Captain Bourke, and other w^hite authorities 
say that the Cheyennes went down Powder River and joined 
Crazy Horse on that stream. Those who made the march, how- 
ever, tell a different story. The Cheyennes followed the ridge 
of the Big Horn Mountains down until they reached the head of 
Clear Creek — Lodge Pole Creek of the Cheyennes — and followed 
it down by the big lake.^ Then they crossed over to the head of 
Prairie Dog Creek — Cheyenne, Crow Standing Creek — followed 
that down to Tongue River and down Tongue River to just above 
the mouth of Otter Creek. One of their camps was on the east 
side of Tongue River, just opposite where White Elk now lives. 
From Tongue River, above the mouth of Otter Creek, they made 
a cut-off to Otter Creek, followed that up to its east fork and 
crossed over to Beaver Creek — Box Elder Creek of the Chey- 
ennes — where Crazy Horse was camped. The Sioux treated 
them very kindly and supplied most of their wants. 

* Lake De Smet. 



XXVIII 

SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 

1877 

After the Custer fight all the Indians moved up Little Sheep 
River and then over on to Pole Creek — Clear Creek — a tributary 
of Powder River. There they separated. The Sioux went west 
to Tongue River and the Rosebud and with them about ten lodges 
of Cheyennes. These were the lodges of Black Moccasin, and his 
son White Bull, Limber Lance, Left Handed Shooter, his son, 
Shadow That Comes in Sight, Walks on Crutches, Wooden Leg's 
father. Bull Head, White Whiskers, and Black Hawk. This was 
late in the fall. 

The other Cheyennes moved toward the Big Horn Mountains, 
and then to the head of Powder River where General Mackenzie 
found them. 

One day some Sioux of Crazy Horse's camp vvho were on the 
top of a high hill below where Saint Labre's Mission now is, but 
on the other side of Tongue River, with their glasses saw far up 
the river many people coming. One of them ran to the camp 
and notified it that many people were coming down Tongue 
River and perhaps they might be soldiers. 

The Sioux watched the people coming, and at length saw that 
they were Indians, and presently learned that they were Chey- 
ennes, who when they came up told of the fight with General 
Mackenzie and that the people were very poor; that they had 
no horses, no robes, no blankets, nothing to eat. The Sioux 
treated them well, and gave them many things that they needed. 

When the Sioux and Cheyennes met they all moved south 
and struck Tongue River about the mouth of Hanging Woman 
Creek. From the camp on Hanging Woman the Sioux and some 
of the Cheyennes went up Hanging Woman Creek, but White 
Bull and Two Moon went up Tongue River. General Miles was 
following up Tongue River. 

Old Wool Woman went up Hanging Woman with the Sioux, 

369 



370 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

but after a while with some women she turned back to come and 
overtake White Bull and Two Moon. Wool Woman and the 
widow of Walking White Man, afterward Little Chief's wife, 
were coming along down the stream. General Miles, from his 
camp at the mouth of Hanging Woman, had his Crow scouts out 
looking over the country. They saw the two women and four 
children coming down the stream and hid, and when the women 
came up captured them. A man and boy who had been with 
them had killed a buffalo and stopped behind to skin it, and so 
escaped capture. The young men who got away overtook White 
Bull and Two Moon and told them what had taken place. The 
Cheyennes came back to rescue the women, and had a little fight 
with the soldiers. 

After the fight the soldiers went on down Tongue River with 
their captives, and the Cheyennes went over to the mouth of 
Rotten Grass. Buffalo were plenty and they stayed there a long 
time. A few of Crazy Horse's band moved in and camped with 
them. 

Toward spring, Wool Woman, who had been captured, came 
to the Cheyenne camp with an interpreter, bringing tobacco and 
presents. She brought a message from General Miles asking them 
to go down to Fort Keogh and surrender. The Cheyennes de- 
cided to do so. 

The next morning Two Moon, White Bull, Sleeping Rabbit, 
Iron Shirt, Crazy Mule, Black Bear, Little Creek, White Thunder, 
Crazy Head, and a few other young men set out for the soldier 
camp to surrender. A few women went with them, but most of 
the women and children remained in the camp. With them went 
some Sioux with Hump as leader. Bruyere,^ the interpreter, 
left them on Tongue River and went in a day ahead of them, 
saying that when they appeared at Keogh he w^ould come out 
and meet them. Before they got in he came back with another 
scout, and met them not far from the fort. He brought from 
General Miles a message telling them not to fear anything, but 
to come right in to the post. As the Indians came to the edge of 
the parade-ground the white soldiers all fell in line. White Bull 
said to Two Moon as they rode on: "Make up your mind now; 
have courage, for here we are to be killed." 

^ This name is spelled in many different ways. 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 371 

When they reached the parade-ground General Miles, wear- 
ing a short bearskin coat and on a gray horse, rode up in front 
of the line of Indians. He shook hands with Two Moon and 
White Bull, calling them by name. White Bull, though frightened 
when he first rode in, soon learned that they had nothing to fear. 
The oflBcers shook hands with them, and had tents put up for 
them. The post consisted altogether of tents, except a few little 
log houses, in one of which General Miles lived, and to this they 
were called. 

When they had come in. General Miles said to them : " Here 
you are in my house and I want to talk to you. In some ways I 
am a mean man. In other ways I am a good man. I want you 
people to come here and surrender to me; to give up your arms 
and your horses, and turn them over to me. If you do as I tell 
you I will be a good man to you, but if you do not do this I will 
be mean to you." 

Two Moon replied: "It is well; we will go back to our camp, 
and move right in to the post and surrender to you." 

After he had made this promise. Miles asked him for one man 
to stay here while all the rest should go back. Two Moon asked 
his men for a young man who should stay behind, but no one 
seemed to wish to stay; they all wanted to go back. Then the 
council broke up. That night Two Moon talked to the young 
men and also the next morning, but none would volunteer to re- 
main behind as a hostage. Finally White Bull said to Two Moon : 
"You tell General Miles that I will stay. I don't know what he 
wants to do to me, but I will stay." 

Next morning all the Indians mounted and fell in line in front 
of General Miles's quarters. They still retained their arms in- 
tending to keep them until the camp had moved in. Two ]\Ioon 
said: "Here we are, all ready to go back. You ask for one man 
from my party to stay with you, and I am going to give you one 
who will remain here until we return." 

" Who is the man ? " asked General Miles. 

"It is this man, White Bull," replied Two Moon. 

General Miles said to White Bull: "Come in to my house," 
and he put a chair for him to sit on. 

Then he spoke to Two Moon and said: "I will do no harm to 
this man whom you are leaving with me, but I shall enlist him 



372 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

now as a scout." This was so that White Bull could begin to 
draw pay at once. 

Two Moon said: "That will be good. I do not wish to have 
him killed or hanged. I would rather have him shot than hanged. 
When I return I will move my camp right down through the 
middle of this post and camp above it." 

"If you will move down through the middle of this post," 
said Miles, "it will be a good thing. You will help yourself. 
If you do that I will help you. Now, perhaps you had better 
move back to your tents, and I will give you food that you can 
live on while you are going back," but General Miles kept White 
Bull in the house with him. It took a long time to give out the 
rations, and they told Two Moon he had better wait there over- 
night and start early the next morning. 

While they were drawing rations White Bull was enlisted as a 
scout. He held up his hand to the sky and promised that he 
would serve faithfully. They gave him a uniform. After he was 
dressed in his uniform Captain Ewers, who was to command the 
scouts, and White Bull walked over to the tents where the Chey- 
ennes were, so that the others could see him in his uniform. White 
Bull spoke up to the others and said: "My friends, I have enlisted 
as scout and I think it will be a good thing if you come in and 
surrender as soon as you can. Tell my father and my family 
what I have done and ask them to come in." 

Some of the Cheyennes remained at the post with White Bull, 
for when they saw that he had enlisted they thought there was no 
danger and that they would be well treated, and they preferred 
to remain rather than to ride back to the camp and immediately 
return. 

The next morning when Two Moon and his party were ready 
to start. Two Moon turned his horse and rode to headquarters 
to shake hands with General Miles, and the interpreter went 
with him. 

Two Moon said to General Miles: "You see that trail up 
Tongue River? That is the trail I shall return by. I have 
picked out a place to camp in that thick timber above the post. 
I shall not make a crook in my trail returning, but shall come 
straight." 

When the camp moved back Wool Woman rode in ahead and 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 373 

told White Bull that the people were coming. White Bull told 
General Miles about it, and he ordered eighteen head of cattle 
sent out for food for the camp. White Bull drove them out. 
After he had started two sergeants overtook him to help to drive 
the cattle. They went part way with him until they saw people 
coming. Then White Bull told them that they would better 
go back — he would hold the cattle. The interpreter came out 
from the post and overtook White Bull just before he met the 
people. He helped hold the cattle. 

When the Cheyennes came to where the cattle were they 
camped. The men killed the cattle and divided them while 
the women were putting up the lodges and gathering wood. 
That night White Bull remained with the camp and the next 
morning early set out and rode fast to Fort Keogh. He got in 
early and reported that the Cheyennes would be in some time 
during the day. 

When General Miles heard they were coming he gave orders 
to have tents put up in the timber near the river. The Indians 
moved straight through the parade-ground as Two Moon had 
said and went down to where the tents were. The horses were 
all thrown into one bunch and driven into the fort. The men 
gave up all their arms. 

A few days later thirty of the men were enlisted as scouts. 
White Bull was the first of the Cheyennes to be enlisted and 
Brave Wolf the next. 

The Lame Deer Fight 

The day after the camp had come in — probably April 30 — 
General Miles sent for White Bull, saying: "My people have 
reported to me that somebody is chasing buffalo at the mouth of 
the Rosebud. I think they may be Sioux. We will go and find 
out." 

White Bull went to Brave Wolf and said: "I am going out. 
Enlist as scout and go with me." Brave Wolf did so. They 
went out with General Miles and his orderly, the troops having 
moved on the day before, and went three days' march up Tongue 
River, as far as the bend of the Rosebud, and camped on Tongue 
River. 

Next morning General Miles sent an interpreter with \Miite 



374 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Bull and Brave Wolf on a scout. They went out to look for 
a trail. They crossed the Rosebud and after going some distance 
struck a trail. The same day the troops moved over to the 
Rosebud. White Bull and his companions followed the trail to 
the Sioux camp, where they found fresh meat that had not had 
time to spoil. They followed the trail a little way until it turned 
back to the Rosebud and reached it below the mouth of the Lame 
Deer, below the Painted Rocks. Here they saw the soldiers 
coming, and waited until they came up. General Miles sent 
White Bull on to follow the trail until he should see something, 
saying that the troops would wait here until his return. White 
Bull and the interpreter set out on the trail, which crossed the 
Rosebud at the mouth of the Lame Deer. When they got to the 
Lame Deer it was still light but the sun was low. They went up 
on a high point south of the Lame Deer to look up the Rosebud, 
and when they looked up there they saw a long string of Indians 
coming in from the buffalo chase with loaded horses crossing over 
the trail where the wagon-road now goes. When they saw the 
Indians they pulled back their horses to hide in the ravines until 
they should have got out of sight. When the people had disap- 
peared White Bull and the interpreter went up through the hills 
and crossed the trail of the buffalo hunters, where the road now 
runs and where there used to be water. When they got there 
they drank, and then rode up on the hills a little way and got 
oflf their horses. 

White Bull said to the interpreter: "We cannot both leave the 
horses; one must stay and hold them while the other climbs that 
hill to look. If we leave the horses someone may take them 
away." 

The interpreter said: "You go up there and see what you can 
see and I will stay here with the horses." 

The interpreter gave White Bull a little book and a pencil 
and said to him : " Take this and every time you see a lodge make 
a mark and when you get back I will count them up for you." 

White Bull climbed the hill and looked over and saw the 
camp. He counted the lodges up to ten, then made a mark in 
the book. He counted all the lodges he could see and when he 
got back the interpreter counted them and made thirty-eight 
lodges. It was springtime but the grass was well up. 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 375 

Now White Bull and the interpreter started back to the 
troops. By the time they had reached the mouth of the Lame 
Deer it was quite dark. They could see nothing, but they knew 
where they had left the troops at the Painted Rocks. When 
they came close to the troops the interpreter took out a little 
whistle and blew it. This was an understood signal, and when a 
sentry heard it he knew who blew it and called out to them. 

When they got into the camp they reported to General Miles 
where the Sioux camp was situated and how far off. The inter- 
preter had made notes of the position of the camp. General 
Miles asked: "White Bull, what do you think about our starting 
to-night ? Did you get the lay of the land and see where we can 
get the troops in ? " 

"Yes," said White Bull, "right up that creek is a red point.' 
I think that would be a good place to post the troops to-night. 
It is near the camp." They started and stopped for the night at 
this red point. 

Just before daylight White Bull went to the top of a hill and 
saw light in some of the lodges. The women had already begun 
to build their fires. He returned and reported to General Miles. 
No noise was made, but word was passed among the soldiers and 
all got ready. There was some cavalry and some infantry. A 
cavalry horse was led up to White Bull and given to him and his 
pony, which he had now been riding for two days, was led back. 
He spoke to the interpreter and said: "Tell General Miles I have 
another idea in my head and I think we can work it so that before 
they know anything about us we will be all around them. Yes- 
terday when I was on the hill I saw two little creeks coming in, 
one at the camp and one just below it. On the hill on the other 
side of the camp there are some pine trees. I can take the 
cavalry up to the first creek I saw and take them up that and over 
the divide and down on to the other creek, and on the other side 
of that I can take the cavalry up the hill and get above the camp, 
and the infantry can follow up the main valley here." 

"No," said the interpreter, "let us give these people a chance 
to get away." 

"But," said White Bull, "if we surround them they will have 

^ This red point is nearly a mile below the present agency at Lame Deer. 



376 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

to surrender and we shall get them all," but the interpreter said 
"no" and did not speak to General Miles. 

The troops started. They had got nearly up to where the 
agency now stands when they saw a man on horseback. White 
Bull said to the interpreter: "There is a person who has seen us," 
and the interpreter told General Miles. 

The Sioux must have ridden fast back to the camp, but it 
seems that he did not alarm it. All remained quiet. The in- 
terpreter, after speaking to General Miles, ran on to a little point 
near where the trader's store now is, and looked up the creek. 
Then began the charge as far as the first ravine below the camp, 
where some of the troops stopped. Most of the cavalry did not 
stop but charged through the camp and got above it on the creek. 
As they charged up the trail the first soldier was killed just where 
Cooley's house is now. By this time it was full daylight but the 
sun was not yet up. When they stopped above where the round- 
house now is^ the soldiers began to fire. Three men charged them 
from Lame Deer's camp. Then they could see the women and 
children run out of the lodges and race for the hills. 

In a bend of the Lame Deer is a bank about six feet high and 
three hundred yards east of this is a high knoll, on which General 
Miles and White Bull stood. Bob Jackson was interpreter after 
Bruyere had gone on with the leading soldiers. Jackson said: 
"This is Lame Deer's camp and I bet that is Lame Deer over 
there now," pointing to a Sioux man in the distance. Then 
Hump, who was back with the infantry, rode up to the three on 
the knoll and said: "I will call down to these men and see what 
they say." 

The man Jackson had said was Lame Deer had a white rag in 
his hand and raised it, and when he did so all the shooting stopped. 
Then Hump called down to them, asking them to surrender. 
The man was Lame Deer and with him were his son and another 
man. Hump rode down to Lame Deer. His son was not quiet 
for a minute. After speaking to Lame Deer, Hump rode back to 
the commanding officer. He said: "That is Lame Deer, and he 
wants to see General Miles." 

General Miles had a white cloth tied around his head. He 
took off the white cloth and gave it to his orderly, who took a 
1 The present fair grounds at Lame Deer. 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 377 

white hat out of his saddle-pockets and gave it to General Miles. 
He handed his gun to the orderly, but kept his pistol. Then they 
rode down toward Lame Deer, eight persons in all. 

The approaching party were Lame Deer, his son, and another 
Sioux, and a fourth Sioux leading Lame Deer's horse. When 
they came together Lame Deer and General Miles shook hands 
and General Miles took off his hat. The son did not keep still. 
He walked up and down. The Sioux leading the horse led it off 
toward the creek. General Miles said to the interpreter: "Tell 
Lame Deer to put his gun down." 

Lame Deer put his gun on the ground with the muzzle toward 
General Miles, and as he put the gun down he cocked it. The 
other Sioux did not put down his gun. The son walked up and 
down like a sentry on post. The only thing he said was: "I am 
a soldier walking on my own land. I will give up my gun to no 
man. They have already killed my grandmother." He kept 
repeating this. An old woman had been killed. 

General Miles did not notice that Lame Deer's gun was at 
full cock and White Bull rode around close to General Miles, 
touched his leg with his foot, and when Miles looked around at 
him he made a motion with his mouth at the gun and signed that 
it was at full cock. This was to put General Miles on his guard 
about the gun in case it should be picked up by Lame Deer. 

As they sat there on their horses the interpreter rode to White 
Bull and said to him: "Do you ride over to Lame Deer's son and 
tell him to surrender. Tell him to look at all the women and 
children running to the hills. Let him remember no one will be 
hurt and we will get in all the horses and bring them to the 
fort." 

White Bull turned his horse and as he turned the interpreter 
said: "That captain will help you." The captain and White 
Bull rode up to the son and White Bull spoke to him. The young 
man replied: " I have told you once that I am a soldier on my own 
ground," and he raised his gun and struck White Bull on the arm. 
White Bull spurred his horse close to the young man and caught 
the gun by the muzzle and the captain caught the young man 
by the arm. They struggled for a moment and White Bull 
pulled away the gun, which went off in the scuffle and the ball 
passed through White Bull's overcoat. Lame Deer exclaimed in 



378 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

excuse for his nephew: "My friend is young." Then Lame Deer 
picked up his gun and fired at General Miles. General Miles 
bent to one side on his horse and the ball tore a hole in his coat. 
Then every one began to shoot. White Bull let go the young 
man and as he turned he saw a sergeant, Sharp, draw his pistol 
and ride up to Lame Deer and shoot. Then Lame Deer's son ran 
toward the sergeant who shot at him, and the son shot, too, and hit 
the sergeant in the breast. White Bull thinks that the sergeant's 
shot killed the Sioux who was with the two. General Miles drew 
his pistol and fired at Lame Deer who started to walk away. 
Soon all of them began to fire at Lame Deer and now the infantry 
came up on a charge. The Sioux kept moving, walking toward 
the hills where the women and children had gone. Lame Deer 
said to his son: "Turn and fight." But the son was too weak. 
He was using his gun for a crutch or was dragging it. They 
crossed the Lame Deer and went up a little gulch. White Bull 
and the interpreter were close to them and the soldiers and 
scouts were firing all the time. Lame Deer walked up to his 
son and took him by the shoulder and just as he did so Lame 
Deer fell. The son turned and faced the soldiers and then he too 
fell and sat there bracing himself with his two hands. Then he 
tried to load his gun and succeeded in doing so, but had not 
strength to raise it to his shoulder. As he sat there the inter- 
preter, Jackson, knelt down and fired, and the ball struck the 
young man in the middle of the forehead, just cutting the lower 
edge of the brow-band of the war bonnet. 

This was a brave young man to walk so far with such bad 
wounds as he had and not to give up his gun. He died with his 
gun in his hands. After the fight was over White Bull scalped 
Lame Deer and his son. The son was not Lame Deer's son but 
his nephew, the son of his brother. He was called Big Ankle, 
which is said to have been also the name of the boy's father. 

While they were fighting here some young Sioux must have 
slipped around behind. Brave Eagle and some others charged 
a pack-train of six mules which had been left behind, killed one 
of the packers, and captured two mules and the ammunition. 

That night after the fight White Bull was called in to General 
Miles's tent. General Miles said to him: "Do you remember 
what I told you when you enlisted ? Now, these horses that we 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 379 

have taken you may have, and I want you ahvays to keep this 
gun that you have been shooting with against the Sioux." 

White Bull kept it until the summer of 1005, when it was 
burned up in a fire which destroyed his house. General Miles 
asked White Bull what he could do for him for what he had done. 
White Bull said he wished for nothing except to be helped to con- 
tinue to live in this country where he belonged. White Bull had 
offered Ankle's scalp to General Miles, but he declined to take it. 

At this time the Lame Deer River was called Muddy Creek. 
Five Sioux men were killed in this fight and one woman. Others 
may have been killed. Two soldiers were killed and one per- 
son — soldier or citizen — with the pack-train. Troops about the 
village had destroyed and ruined everything in it. They took 
what they wanted. They got a lot of food. The people in this 
village were chiefly Sioux of Lame Deer's band, but there were 
some Cheyennes. Among them was White Hawk. The Chey- 
ennes were camped some little distance above the Sioux and had 
time to escape without loss of lives or horses. 

Supplementary to the account of this fight given by White 
Bull is the narrative of Colonel David L. Brainard, at that time 
of the Second U. S. Cavalry, who was in the fight. It is evident 
from Colonel Brainard's account that White Bull has lost track 
of several days of the time which elapsed between the departure 
of the troops from Cantonment at the mouth of Tongue River 
on the Yellowstone. Colonel Brainard's account is as follows: 

Four troops (F, G, H, and L) of the Second Cavalry, under command of 
Captain Ball, were ordered to report to General Miles early in INIay, 1877. 
We had been stationed at Fort Ellis, Montana, and marched down the Yel- 
lowstone River in April, arriving at Tongue River on the 27th of that month. 

On May 1st we broke camp at the Cantonment and marched up Tongue 
River for a distance of about fifteen miles. 

The command consisted of four troops of Second Cavalry, two companies 
of the Fifth Infantry, four of the Twenty-second Infantry, and a company 
of mounted scouts under the command of Lieutenant Ned Casey. 

After marching three days, the wagons were abandoned and pack mules 
were taken, the Cavalry pushing ahead, leaving the Infantry to follow. From 
this time on we marched day and night, stopping now and then for a few hours' 
sleep, to allow the horses to graze, and for refreshments for the men. 

On the afternoon of the 6th we halted about 6 o'clock, and word was 
passed that the command would move forward at 1 o'clock in the morning, 
with a view of making an attack on the hostile camp about daylight. The 



380 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

command started somewhat later than 1 o'clock, and first moved at a walk, 
then at a trot, and before daylight we were moving at a fast gallop. The 
Indian scouts, headed by Bob Jackson, had returned about 12 o'clock, report- 
ing that the Indian camp was much farther away than it was originally sup- 
posed to be, and that it would be necessary to travel very rapidly to reach it 
by daylight. 

Just as the sun was coming up we rounded a point and saw the camp above 
us, probably a mile away; the smoke was curling lazily upward from a few 
tepees, and a few Indians were moving about the camp. H troop, commanded 
by Lieutenant L. H. Jerome, was in advance, and charged directly through the 
left side of the village and on beyond, where it surrounded and captured the 
pony herd, consisting of about five hundred ponies. G troop coming next, 
charged through the village about the same place as H troop, wheeled to the 
right, dismounted, and pursued the Indians up the hill, men, women and 
children having left the camp and passed up the steep hillside to the right. 
L troop, to which I belonged, came next; we wheeled directly through the 
village, dismounted, and charged up the hill on foot. F troop, under Cap- 
tain Tyler, also wheeled to the right and charged up the hill on our right; 
the troops now facing the hill were ranged in the order from right to left, F 
under Tyler, L under Norwood and Hamilton, and G under Wheelan. 

Just before entering the village, I saw General Miles riding toward two 
Indians, who were standing alone, one of them wearing a long war bonnet 
which hung to his heels. Near him, but to his rear, was another Indian. 
Miles was followed by an orderly. The Indian wearing the war bonnet ad- 
vanced toward Miles at a rapid walk, extending his hand as though to grasp 
Miles* hand. When within a few feet of Miles, the other Indian called to 
him sharply, and he tiu-ned and ran for his gun, seized it and fired directly at 
Miles. Miles wheeled his horse sharply, at the same time ducking his head, 
the bullet passing over him, and striking his orderly, who was immediately 
in the rear, in the breast, and he fell from his horse dead. The Indians then 
ran up the liill. 

About this moment the troop to which I was attached dismounted, and 
we followed the Indians up the precipitous hills. The head-dress made a 
very conspicuous target, and many shots were fired at the Indian wearing it. 
Finally he was seen to totter, and the other Indian, presumably his son — Iron 
Star, placed his hand about the other's waist and supported him up the hill; 
Lame Deer was seen to take a pistol from his belt and fire backward in our 
direction. As he was just able to totter along, being weakened from many 
wounds, this was regarded by us as an act of defiance. The shots were prob- 
ably fired without any expectation of striking us. When the old man fell, 
Iron Star escaped over the hill through our left, and ran into the face of G 
troop under Wheelan, and was shot by Wheelan, who used a pistol. 

After driving the Indians to the top of the hill, the horses were brought 
up, we mounted, and pursued them for some distance, but the most of them 
had disappeared. The command then returned to the Indian camp, which 
was destroyed, the tepees being torn down, piled one on another, and tons 
of dried buffalo meat, hundreds of beautiful buffalo-robes, saddles, arms, 



SURRENDER OF TWO MOON'S BAND 381 

bridles, and equipment of all kinds were burned with the tepees. We camped 
on this ground that night, and the following day retraced our steps toward 
the Rosebud. Two companies of the Fifth Infantry entered our camp very 
soon after the fight, but they were too late to particijjate in tlic action. 

I do not recall that Miles halted that morning from our bivouac to Lame 
Deer camp. It is possible that he may have started out some distance in 
advance of the column, which would have given him an opportunity of stopn 
ping, but I am sure that the command did not stop from the time we started 
until we reached Lame Deer camp. 

It is true that the Indians circled about in the rear of us and captured 
several of our pack animals — loaded with ammunition, and true that one of 
the men with the pack train was killed, and another had his horse shot, but 
instead of fighting his way up the creek to camp, he intrenched himself on a 
little hill and fought the Indians until the Fifth Infantry came up to relieve 
him. 

Bob Jackson's horse gave out as we reached the scene of the fight, but 
he knew too well the danger of being left in the rear of the command, and he 
caught the tail of one of the Cavalry horses and held on until the command 
was in the village. 

I believe there were si.Tty-three lodges, instead of thirty-eight of these 
Indians. 

No doubt the identification of Lame Deer and his son is as 
given by White Bull, who personally knew Lame Deer, and who 
unquestionably discussed the fight, and all its circumstances with 
Hump, the Sioux who was acting as scout for j\Iiles. The fact 
that the younger man wore a war bonnet undoubtedly gave the 
impression that he was the important man of the two. It is not 
conceivable that White Bull should have been mistaken in a 
matter of this kind, and besides, he was close to the men who 
were killed, while Colonel Brainard was at a distance. 

The coulee where Lame Deer fell is just below what is known 
as the Cooley House. Fifty or sixty yards above the little wash, 
or waterway, in that narrow valley — southeast of it — is a little 
red knoll and not far beyond that, to the south and southeast, 
is a higher knoll, or point, strewn with black rocks and with small 
trees growing on it. On this higher knoll Lame Deer was buried, 
and here twenty years later I saw his daughter mourn for him 
with wailings as keen and as touching as if he had been buried 
only yesterday. 

Forty yards still beyond this — up the ravine — is a still higher 
point with bigger trees. Lame Deer fell just as he got to the 
wash, south of it, across a small pine sapling. 



382 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Brave Wolf was with the troops that charged up the Lame 
Deer, on the east side where the road now runs. He got up be- 
yond the camp and then turned back. 

Lieutenant Edward Casey, Twenty-second Infantry, took 
twenty mounted scouts, and led this charge up the valley. Brave 
Wolf riding by his side until they crossed the stream, when Casey 
went ahead. 

In the fight three soldiers were killed and six Sioux. The 
Sioux were Lame Deer, his son, a man named Hump, a young 
man whose name is not known, and an old man and an old woman. 
Brave Wolf thinks that Lame Deer's son was named Flying. A 
Sioux named George Flying By, said to be a nephew of Lame 
Deer, resided a few years since at Standing Rock Agency. 



XXIX 

LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 

1876-1879 

The winter of 1876-1877 was spent by Dull Knife's camp of 
Northern Cheyennes with the Sioux of Crazy Horse's village on 
Powder River. In the spring of 1877, Dull Knife and his people 
surrendered to the troops. Most of them were sent south to the 
Indian Territory, with the understanding that they were to re- 
main there with their relatives — the Southern Cheyennes. 

There they at once found themselves facing new conditions. 

They had come from the high dry country of Montana and 
North Dakota to the hot and humid Indian Territory. They 
had come from a country where buffalo and other game were 
still plenty to a country where the game had been exterminated. 
Immediately on their arrival they were attacked by fever and 
ague, a disease wholly new to them. Food was scanty, and they 
began to starve. The agent testified before a committee of the 
Senate^ that he never received supplies to subsist the Indians for 
more than nine months of each fiscal year. These people were 
meat eaters, but the beef furnished them by the Government 
inspector was no more than skin and bone. The agent in de- 
scribing their sufferings said : " They have lived and that is about 
all." 

The Indians endured this for about a year, and then their 
patience gave out. They left the agency to which they had been 
sent and started north. Though troops were camped close to 
them, they attempted no concealment of their purpose. Instead, 
they announced that they intended to return to their own coun- 
try. 

We have heard much in past years of the Nez Perces' march 
under Chief Joseph, but little is remembered of the Dull Knife 
outbreak, and the march to the north, led by Little Wolf. This 
march was over an open country, where there was no opportunity 

» Senate Report No. 708, 46th Congress, 2d Session, p. 64. 
383 



384 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

to avoid pursuers or to hide from them so as to get a Httle rest 
and respite. The story of the journey has not been told, but in 
the traditions of the old army this campaign was notable, and 
men who were stationed on the plains forty years ago are likely 
to tell you — if you ask them — that there never was such another 
journey since the Greeks marched to the sea. 

Troops sent after them from Fort Reno overtook the little 
band before it had gone a hundred miles. The Indians were or- 
dered to return to the agency. They refused to do so, and a fight 
took place. The troops left them and the Indians went on. The 
fugitives pressed constantly northward, while orders were flying 
over the wires and special trains were carrying men and horses, 
cavalry and infantry, to cut them off at all probable points on 
the different railway lines they must cross. Of the three hundred 
Indians sixty or seventy were fighting men. The rest were old 
men, children, women, and boys. An army officer once told me 
that thirteen thousand troops were hurrying over the country to 
capture or kill these few people who had left the fever-stricken 
south, and in the face of every obstacle were steadily marching 
northward. 

The War Department set in operation against them all its 
resources, but they kept on. If troops attacked them, they 
stopped and fought until they had driven off the soldiers, and 
then started north again. Sometimes they did not even stop, 
but marched along, fighting as they marched. For the most 
part they tried — and with success — to avoid conflicts and had 
but four real hard fights, in which they lost half a dozen men 
killed, and about as many wounded. 

During the winter following the capture of Dull Knife's vil- 
lage, in November, 1876, General Mackenzie learned where the 
Cheyennes were, and sent out a runner asking them to come in 
and surrender. The runner returned with the message that they 
had assented and had already started in. They reached Fort 
Robinson early in April, surrendered, and made peace. The In- 
dian Bureau wished to bring all the Cheyennes together on one 
reservation in the Indian Territory, which for the past forty 
years or more had been the range of the Southern Cheyennes. 
Orders were given, therefore, that these surrendered people should 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 385 

be sent to the Indian Territory, but they were much opposed to 
going there. From time to time many of them had visited the 
southern country, but scarcely any of them had ever lived there. 

They felt so strongly about this that General Crook and 
General Mackenzie had a council with them to decide what 
should be done. General Crook spoke kindly to them, and told 
them that they might choose one of three courses; either to go 
south, or to the agency of the Shoshoni and Arapahoes at Fort 
Washaki, or to stay at Fort Robinson for a year, at the end of 
which time the authorities would decide what should be done 
with them. All the Cheyennes wished to remain at Fort Robin- 
son, but they had appointed Standing Elk to speak for them, 
and presently he stood up and declared that they were willing 
to go south. When he said this the Indians were all so much 
astonished and confused that no one objected, and at length 
they accepted what he said and agreed to go. This decision 
pleased the army officers, and they urged that the Indians should 
start at once, and so by mingling threats and persuasions the 
Cheyennes were half forced and half persuaded to leave their 
country. 

They started south about May 1, and for one day's march 
had an escort of troops, who then left them. Lieutenant — after- 
ward General — Lawton, Fourth Cavalry, was in charge of the 
camp. There were some wagons and a small pack-train to help 
transport their supplies and to carry the sick and poor. Five 
soldiers acted as packers and stood guard over the wagons. 
William Rowland was interpreter. 

All through the trip things went pleasantly and smoothly. 
They travelled south for seventy days, and then reached their 
destination, Fort Reno and Darlington — the Chej-enne and 
Arapaho agency, in what is now Oklahoma. 

Almost as soon as they arrived, when they had been in camp 
but a very few days, they began to be stricken with fever and 
ague. Of nine hundred and ninety-nine in the camp nearly two- 
thirds sickened within two months after their arrival. Every 
lodge held one or more sick people. During that winter forty- 
one died of sickness. 

There was an agency physician at this agency, and there were 
five thousand Indians scattered over a considerable area and all 



386 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

dependent on this one man. Malarial diseases were prevalent 
among all these Indians. The Northern Cheyennes, fresh from 
the high dry plains of Montana, were peculiarly susceptible to 
such diseases. 

Though there was a physician here, the Indian Bureau had 
furnished him with njo medicines. Medical supplies, which that 
year should have been ready for use in the summer, were not 
received until the following January. Besides this, the Indians 
were ill-fed, receiving only about three-quarter rations, food of 
such a character that it was greatly complained of. Even the 
agent, who would be likely to take a cheerful view of the sup- 
plies he was issuing, could say nothing better about the meat 
than that "it was not grossly bad."* 

It is not strange, then, that before the Northern Cheyennes 
had been a year in the Indian Territory they became greatly 
disheartened and discontented. They saw themselves sick, 
starving and dying and were much alarmed. They wished that 
they had never come to this southern country; they longed to 
be back again in their old dry country, and they began to ask 
to be taken back. 

All shared the feeling expressed by Little Chief — who died in 
1906 — when he said of that time before the congressional com- 
mittee: "A great many have been sick; some have died. I have 
been sick a great deal of the time since I have been down here — 
homesick and heartsick and sick in every way. I have been 
thinking of my native country and the good home I had up there 
where I was never hungry, but when I wanted anything to eat 
could go out and hunt buffalo. It makes me feel sick when I 
think about that, and I cannot help thinking about that." 

About the middle of the summer, somewhere near the Fourth 
of July, Little Wolf, the leader of a section of the tribe, gathered 
together all his men and went to the agent and said to him: 
"These people were raised far up in the north among the pines 
and the mountains. In that country we were always healthy. 
There was no sickness and very few of us died. Now, since we 
have been in this country, we are dying every day. This is not 
a good country for us, and we wish to return to our home in the 
mountains. If you have not the power to give us permission to 

1 Senate Report No. 708» 46th Congress, 2d Session, p. 76. 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 387 

go back there, let some of us go on to Washington, and tell them 
there how it is, or do you write to Washington and get permis- 
sion for us to go back north." The agent's answer was: "I can- 
not do this now. Stay here for one more year and then we will 
see what we can do for you." 

"No," replied Little Wolf, "we cannot stay another year; 
we want to go now. Before another j^ear has passed we may all 
be dead and there will be none of us left to travel north." 

The agent said to him: "I am told that some of your people 
have gone off already." 

"I do not know that any have gone," replied Little Wolf. 

They talked a little longer without result and the Cheyennes 
went back to their camp and continued to discuss the matter, 
trying to decide whether they should wait another year or go 
now. Soon after this some of the Indian policemen came to the 
camp, saying that they had been sent by the agent, who declared 
that three of their young men had run away and that he believed 
they were all going. He had sent the policemen to stop them. 

Little Wolf said to the policemen: "You go back and tell the 
agent that we intend to move a little way up the river to camp 
there, and that then we will come and see him again." 

They moved camp as he said they would, but before they had 
had time to go in to see the agent some troops came up to the 
camp, bringing with them a howitzer and told the Indians that 
they must go back to the agency. The troops camped close by 
the Indians and they stayed there for four days longer, when a 
messenger came from the agency asking Little W^olf to go in and 
talk with the agent. He went, taking with him two men. Wild 
Hog and Crow. 

When Little Wolf entered the agent's office he asked: "^Nha.t 
do you want with me; why did you send for me?" 

The agent said: "Three of your young men have run off, and 
now I want you to give me ten of your young men, to hold here 
as prisoners until I get back the three that have gone off. The 
soldiers will go after these three, and when they have brought 
them back I will give the ten men their liberty." 

Little Wolf stood up and after he had shaken hands with the 
agent, and with some army officers who were there, he said: "I 
will not do what you ask. If you follow those three men, you 



388 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

cannot find them. Three men who are travelling over the coun- 
try can hide, so that they cannot be found. You never could get 
back these three and you never would set my men free. You 
would keep them always." 

The agent said to him: "If you do not give me these ten men, 
I will give you no rations. I will give you nothing to eat until 
I get them. You shall starve until they are given to me. So 
you must give me those men, and I want them at once." 

Little Wolf answered again : " I cannot give you the ten men 
you wish, to be held for the three who have gone. I will not give 
them. I am a friend to the white people, and have been so for a 
long time. I went to see my Great Father in Washington, and 
he told me that he did not wish any more blood spilled; that we 
ought to be friends and fight no more." The agent's reply was 
that he must have these hostages and must have them quickly. 

Then Little Wolf said to him: "You and I have always been 
friends, but to-day I cannot do for you what you ask. I do not 
want any trouble, nor do I wish to have blood shed at this agency, 
but I cannot do what you ask." For some little time they 
talked in this way, the agent insisting that he must have the men 
— that he would have them. 

At last Little Wolf stood up and again shook hands with all 
present and said: "My friends, I am now going to my camp. I 
do not wish the ground about this agencj^ to be made bloody, 
but now listen to what I say to you. I am going to leave here; 
I am going north to my own country. I do not want to see blood 
spilt about this agency. If you are going to send your soldiers 
after me, I wish that you would first let me get a little distance 
away from this agency. Then if you want to fight, I will fight you 
and we can make the ground bloody at that place." 

Little Wolf and his companions went back to the camp, about 
twenty miles above the agency on the Canadian River. There 
were about three hundred people in this camp and the leading 
men were Dull Knife and Little Wolf; both brave and wise men, 
though Dull Knife's reputation had been won more in counsel 
than in war, while Little Wolf was above all things a brave man 
and a warrior. 

The man who did the interpreting at these talks was Edmond 
Guerrier, who is still living in Oklahoma. He was the one sent 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 389 

out by Agent J. D. Miles to ask them to come in, and during this 
last talk he tried to persuade the Indians from their threatened 
course and offered them some presents. He advised them not 
to go as they had announced they should, saying to them: "If 
you do you will have trouble." Little Wolf replied to him: 
"We do not want trouble. We are not looking for anything of 
that kind. All we want is to get back to where we came from." 
The temper of the Indians was such that one of Guerrier's rela- 
tions in the camp advised him not to interpret for the Indians 
any more, saying that they might get angry at him and kill 
him. 

The next morning the Cheyennes broke camp and started 
north to go to their old home. They travelled rapidly. On the 
evening of the second day, after they had camped and were eating, 
someone who was out watching on the hill made signs to them 
that many soldiers were coming. This was on Little Medicine 
Lodge River. 

Little Wolf ran out of his lodge and called out to the young 
men: "Do not any of you shoot until the troops have fired. Let 
them shoot first. But do you all get your arms and horses and 
I will go out and meet the troops, and try to talk with them. 
If they kill any of us, I will be the first man killed. Then you can 
fight." 

When they had come within sight of the camp the soldiers 
halted. With them were some Arapaho scouts and some Chey- 
enne policemen from the agency. The officers sent forward an 
Arapaho, whose name was Ghost Man, to talk to them. When 
he had come so near to the camp that his voice could be heard 
and quite close to Little Wolf, he called out the names of Dull 
Knife, Little Wolf, Wild Hog, and Tangle Hair. He said to 
Little Wolf: "The white men want you to go back. We are sent 
out to overtake you and bring you back. If you will surrender 
and return, they will give you your rations and will treat you 
well." 

Little Wolf replied: "Tell them that we do not want to fight; 
that we will not go back. We are leaving this country. I have 
had no quarrel with anyone. I hold up my right hand that I do 
not wish to fight with the whites; but we are going to our old home 
to stay there." 



390 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

Again the Arapaho called, repeating what he had said, and 
again Little Wolf answered: "No; we are going back to the coun- 
try where we were born and brought up." 

Presently the Arapaho went back, and Little Wolf rode toward 
the soldiers, wishing to talk further with them and perhaps hoping 
that they would go away and leave him, but before he was close 
enough to them to talk, a bugle sounded and the soldiers advanced 
and began to fire at Little Wolf. Then the Cheyennes charged 
out and met the troops, and for a time they fought there. So 
it happened that the soldiers did not get near to the Cheyenne 
camp. It was perhaps four o'clock when the fighting began, 
and they fought till dark. Then the fire of the soldiers slackened, 
and Little Wolf called to his young men to stop firing and go to 
their camp. 

The soldiers remained there all night, and the Cheyennes 
stayed and watched them. They did not fight during the night, 
but now and then all through the darkness shots were exchanged. 
Early the next morning they began to fight, and fought until 
the sun began to go toward the west, when the troops all turned 
and went back down the river. After they had gone, Little Wolf 
went over to where the soldiers had been. Lying on the ground 
there were three dead men^ — a sergeant, a private soldier, and the 
Arapaho messenger. The troops had wounded five Cheyennes 
badly, but had killed none. That night they remained in camp 
and ate and rested, and then started on north. 

After two nights more of travel other troops overtook them; a 
body of men mounted on gray horses. By this time they were 
close to the Cimarron River. The troops had either come from 
the north or had gone around them. At all events they charged 
the Indians from the north; perhaps they had come down from 
the Arkansas River. Of these troops there were not so many as 
of the others. It was in the daytime and the Cheyennes were 
moving when the troops were discovered. The soldiers formed 
a line and charged, but the Cheyennes drove them back in the 
direction of Dodge City, and kept on northward. The fight was 
a very short one, and the soldiers left them and the Indians camped 
not far from the scene of the fight. 

The next day they went on, and about the middle of the day 
a large body of troops was seen coming toward them from the 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 391 

Arkansas River, and with the soldiers were many citizens. There 
were more of these troops than in either of the other forces that 
had attacked them. As soon as the troops came in sight of the 
marching village, they charged it. There was a short fight, only 
a few shots, and then the bugle began to blow and the troops went 
away. It seemed as if they did not want to fight. Nevertheless 
the troops were the first to fire. In this fight they broke a Chey- 
enne's leg. Up to this time Little Wolf had held his men well in 
control, and had in most cases waited before fighting until the 
troops had begun to fire. He had also told his young men that 
he had no wish to fight with the citizens; that their fight was 
with the soldiers. Up to this time there had been nothing but 
straight up and down fighting and no depredations of any char- 
acter, except the killing of some cattle and the taking of some 
horses, both of which might fairly enough be called military 
necessities. 

After these last troops had gone over the hill out of sight, and 
the Cheyenne village had got together and begun to move on 
again, suddenly the troops came back, and it seemed as if there 
were more of them than there had been before. It was now late 
in the day, pretty well toward evening, and the Cheyennes went 
down into the little creek and made camp, and the troops went 
off in another direction and they too went into camp. There 
was no fighting. The people slept there all night. 

Very early in the morning, someone went out on the high 
hill to watch the troops. They had broken camp and were mov- 
ing toward the Cheyenne camp. It could now be seen that they 
had many wagons, perhaps thirty or forty, and the wagons made 
the force look like a large body of men. Now the Cheyennes got 
on their horses and fought there hard all day. It was hard fight- 
ing, not playing. They lost no men, for they did not charge. 
Where they had camped at first, one of the Cheyennes had said: 
"This is a very exposed place; let us move back into those broken 
hills, where we shall be better protected." They moved. After 
this the soldiers began to move in to get below them, and they 
drew up the wagons in a long line, side by side with the tail gates 
toward the Cheyennes. Close by the wagons the whites dis- 
mounted. They were in plain sight and all their movements 
could be seen. The soldiers began to advance on foot in a skir- 



392 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

mish line, firing all the time. There were so many of the white 
people that the Cheyennes began to get excited. But Little 
Wolf spoke, saying: "Let no man fire a shot, and do not get 
excited. They have plenty of ammunition; we have very little. 
Lie hid and wait." 

When the soldiers had come quite close to the Cheyennes, 
Little Wolf ordered them to fire. They shot and killed a soldier, 
and when he fell all the others fell, too. The soldiers remained 
lying on the ground, but kept firing at the top of the hill con- 
stantly; only now and then receiving a shot in return. 

As they looked over the hill, presently the Cheyennes saw 
twenty men rise to their feet and walk away toward the wagons. 
When they reached the wagons, they mounted their horses and 
rode away, striking in below the wagons, so as to go around the 
point of the hill the Cheyennes were on, and get behind them. 
Then Little Wolf took some men around to meet the twenty 
white men, and when he met them, he charged them and drove 
them back to the wagons, killing one. When the soldiers saw 
them coming back, they all jumped up and rushed for the wagons. 
Then Dull Knife ordered the Cheyennes to charge from the top 
of the hill. The soldiers all mounted and started away, and the 
wagons started, the mules on a lope. As the Cheyennes were 
following them, trying to overtake them, Little Wolf called out: 
"Stop, stop; the grass is not very high and our horses are not 
strong enough to stand a long run." All stopped and turned back. 
Where the wagons had been, they found a box of cartridges which 
the soldiers had not had time to put in the wagon after unload- 
ing, and where the soldiers had been lying they found half a box 
of cartridges. All the guns they had were forty-five calibre. They 
took the ammunition and went to their camp. This was all done 
quickly. 

When the fight began, the women were frightened, but during 
the day they built their fires, and cooked food, and fed the men 
while they fought. 

That evening Little Wolf said to his men : " My friends, there 
are too many troops here for us to fight. We must run away. 
We must move out this night and try to get away from here." 
Soon after dark, therefore, they moved out. Early the next 
morning, when they were near the Arkansas River, they came 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 393 

upon a company of men who were killing buffalo — hide hunters. 
They rushed in on them and surrounded them and took eighteen 
buffalo cows they had killed. Little Wolf had ordered his people 
not to kill the men if they would give up their guns, and no one 
was harmed. They took all the ammunition they had, great long 
cartridges for these heavy guns, kegs of powder, lead, bullet 
moulds, and everything they had for reloading their cartridges. 

After they had crossed the Arkansas River they came to a 
little creek and camped. Buffalo were plenty, and while the men 
were chasing buffalo the women were making breastworks on 
the knolls back from the creek, and when they had finished this 
they busied themselves cutting out and drying the meat. The 
point where they had crossed the Arkansas was a short distance 
above Fort Dodge. 

After a time, some watchers who were out on the hills saw 
soldiers following their trail. The Cheyennes got together and 
crossed over to the little creek, camping where the breastworks 
had been made. The watchers told the camp everything that 
was happening, and the Cheyennes formed a line on the ridge 
where the breastworks were. 

Close behind the soldiers followed their wagons. With the 
soldiers were some Indian scouts. When the soldiers had come 
close to them, the Cheyennes fired and then turned about and 
went to their breastworks. They saw three soldiers fall. The 
troops crossed the ridge the Cheyennes were on, passing over to 
the next creek and there corralled their wagons. They were in 
plain sight of the Cheyennes. When the soldiers dismounted, 
they marched toward the breastworks, constantly spreading out 
and almost encircling the camp. There were many of the troops. 
On the right an officer was swinging his sabre and leading on his 
men, and the soldiers followed him. Little Wolf said to his people, 
"Let them come on; lie quiet; do not fire a shot. Wait until 
I tell you." 

The soldiers kept getting closer, walking ahead and firing as 
they came, but Little W^olf would not allow his men to shoot. 
While the soldiers were advancing and firing, the bullets were 
coming so thick that they were constantly knocking up the dirt 
about the Cheyennes, and covering them with dust. Little Wolf 
sat there smoking a pipe and calling out to his men, encouraging 



394 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

them. "Do not get excited," he said; "keep cool, and mind 
what I say to you." Tangle Hair, who sat next to him and watched 
him, said to me: "Little Wolf did not seem like a human being; 
he seemed like an animal — a bear. He seemed without fear." 

At last the soldiers had come quite close, and some of them 
began to climb the hill. Then Little Wolf said: "Now men, 
get ready, but let every shot you fire count for a man." When 
the Cheyennes fired, some of the soldiers fell, and all moved back, 
some of them running hard. After they had moved away the 
fight continued until dark. Then the soldiers went back to the 
wagons. 

That night Little Wolf again said to his people: "My friends, 
we must try to get through here without so much fighting, or we 
may all be killed. We must go faster." 

That night they packed up and set out north again, moving 
as fast as they could and travelling two or three days without 
stopping, until they got to the White Man's Fork (Frenchman's 
Fork of the Republican in Southern Nebraska). There the troops 
came on them again, but there was no fight. The Cheyennes 
kept travelling. They did not stop at all. They went on from 
here without seeing any troops, sometimes travelling night and 
day, and sometimes travelling by night and camping during the 
day. They kept scouts out far behind and on either side, watch- 
ing. At different places as they went along they captured fresh 
horses. They crossed the South Platte, about four miles west of 
Ogallala, then a railroad, and the North Platte. After they had 
crossed the North Platte River, near the mouth of White Clay 
Creek, they stopped to rest, and that day some soldiers came 
within sight of the camp, stopped and looked at them and went 
away. 

After they had crossed the Platte River they separated, 
Little Wolf going on to the northern country, and Dull Knife 
turning west toward Fort Robinson. Just where the separation 
took place is not clear. Little Wolf told me that it was on the 
Running Water. From Tangle Hair's story I suppose it was 
soon after they crossed the Platte, while Big Beaver says that it 
was south of the South Platte River on a little stream which lies 
between that and Driven Creek— Punished Woman's Fork. 
Tangle Hair and Big Beaver remained with Dull Knife, while 



LITTLE WOLF AND DUI.L KNIFE 395 

Little Wolf kept on north. Little Wolf regretted the separation. 
He wished them all to keep together, and said to Dull Knife: 
" You can go that way if you wish, but I intend to work my way 
up to the Powder River country. I think it will be better for us 
all if the party is not divided." Dull Knife, however, felt that 
they had now got back to their own country, and that nothing 
bad would happen to them. Later his party surrendered to the 
troops without a fight. Dull Knife's following had split off from 
the main party, a few at a time, some by day and some by night. 
But before the troops captured them they had all come together 
again. 

After the two parties had separated, Little Wolf followed 
down the Running Water to the Sand Hills, and there all winter 
they lived well on the deer, the antelope, and cattle, which were 
very plenty there. They kept a good lookout and sometimes 
saw white men — soldiers and others — but none of these ever dis- 
covered them. They left there in the early spring (March), and 
went on north, until they were near Powder River. 

Meantime Lieutenant W. P. Clark had been sent out from 
Fort Keogh to try to intercept Little Wolf's party, which the 
troops had entirely lost. Clark was camped at the mouth of 
Powder River. He had with him a number of Indian scouts, 
Sioux and surrendered Cheyennes. 

It was south of Charcoal Butte that two of Lieutenant Clark's 
Sioux scouts met Little Wolf. One was named Red War Bonnet; 
the other, a half-breed, George Farley. 

Little Wolf saw that they were Government scouts, but asked 
them where they came from. They said : " We are from Canada, 
from Sitting Bull's camp;" but Little Wolf saw that they had 
soldier's guns, and clothing and horses, and was not deceived. 

The next morning when they started to move camp. Red War 
Bonnet said: "I am going out to hunt antelope." He started, 
but as soon as he got out of rifle-shot, he ran his horse to get away. 
Then Little Wolf said to the half-breed: "I know you and every- 
body knows me. Go and tell the soldiers I am here." So George 
Farley rode off. 

Red War Bonnet rode hard all day and all night, and reached 
the camp at the mouth of Powder River about noon. He reported 
that he had met Little Wolf, and the troops started that same 



396 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

day. Late that night Farley came into camp. Meantime Little 
Wolf had moved to a point north of the Charcoal Butte, on the 
west side of the Little Missouri River. 

Lieutenant Clark that night called together all his scouts, 
and asked them what they thought he should do. He did not 
wish to fight with Little Wolf. x\mong the scouts were Two 
Moon and Brave Wolf, important men of the Northern Chey- 
ennes. Brave Wolf was eager to fight, but after some talk Clark 
determined to send Young Spotted Wolf, White Horse, Little 
Horse, Hump, and Wolf Voice, the interpreter, to Little Wolf's 
camp with a message. He told them that when they found 
Little Wolf's camp, they should send back a man with the news. 
They started that same night. 

The scouts camped in the mountains on the west side of the 
Little Missouri, and when they went on next morning they saw 
the soldiers only about six miles behind them. Before moving 
they climbed to the top of a high hill, to look for Little Wolf's 
camp. They saw nothing of it, but during the morning, as they 
went on, found horse tracks only a day old, and following these 
came to Little Wolf's camp of the night before. A short way 
beyond, the trail passed over hard ground, where the Indians 
had spread out, and here for several hours the scouts were puzzled, 
trying to find the tracks. At last they found the trail again, and 
a little later when they passed over a hill came upon some worn- 
out and abandoned horses. Just before dark they stopped, 
thinking that at night they might be able to see the fires. From 
here they sent back White Horse to tell Clark that the camp 
was close by. 

They started on again, and presently Wolf Voice came upon 
two or three horses, and as he stood there looking at them, he 
saw a man wrapped in a white sheet walk by, only about thirty 
steps from him. Wolf Voice waited and presently when the man 
returned he followed him, and on a sudden found himself in the 
camp. The lodges were small and well hidden in the bushes. 
For a few moments he did not know what to do. Then he called 
out in a loud voice: "I am a Cheyenne," and immediately every 
one jumped up and began to run about to get in the horses. 

In a short time Wolf Voice was taken to Little Wolf and 
told him that he was with the soldiers, but he did not say 



LITTLE WOLF AND DULL KNIFE 397 

that they were coming and perhaps were close at hand. The 
next morning the Cheyennes started on, Little Wolf riding ahead, 
and soon two men were seen coming, and presently one called 
out: "I am White Hat" — Lieutenant W. P. Clark's Indian name. 
Behind Clark were soldiers all drawn up in line — two troops — 
and Clark with the interpreter sat on his horse in front of them. 
Little Wolf and his company moved toward the soldiers, and the 
packers were frightened and left their animals and hid in the 
brush. 

Clark said: "I have prayed to God that I might find my 
friend Little Wolf, and now I have done so." The two shook 
hands, and then Clark moved into Little Wolf's camp, and that 
night they gave rations to the Cheyennes. Some of the Indians 
were very much afraid of the soldiers. 

After they had camped together for three days Clark said to 
Little Wolf: "I come to you as a friend; I want you people to 
turn over your arms and to go with me to Fort Keogh." Because 
of his friendship for Clark, Little Wolf said: "It is well; we will 
go with you wherever you say." 

There the Cheyennes gave up their arms and all started for 
Fort Keogh. They moved on all together, soldiers and Indians, 
as far as the mouth of Powder River, where there was a large 
camp of troops. The Cheyennes camped there with them, and 
not long afterward moved on up the Yellowstone to Fort Keogh. 

Soon after they reached there General Miles came out to their 
camp and shook hands with Little Wolf and said to him: "You 
and I have been fighting each other for a long time" (meaning 
the Indians and the white men) ; " now, to-day, we meet and shake 
hands, and will always be friends. I want you to give me all 
your horses." Little Wolf told his people to drive in all their 
horses and turn them over to General Miles, and they did so, 
giving him every horse they had. 

Soon after this General INIiles sent for Little Wolf and said to 
him: "Now we have made a peace, and I should like to have you 
and your men enlist with me as soldiers, and help me to fight 
other tribes." 

Little Wolf replied: "My friend, I have been travelling and 
fighting for a long time now, and I am tired. I do not like to do 
this at present." 



398 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

"Well," said General Miles, "think the matter over and see 
how you feel about it." 

Little Wolf did so and talked about it with his young men. 
A few days later General Miles again sent for him, and said to 
him : " Why do you not want to be a soldier ? I have heard that 
you and your people are great fighting men. I have heard of 
your long journey up here; how you fought all the way through. 
Now I want you to enlist and help me whip the Sioux tribe, and 
take them and bring them all in here so that I may make with 
them a peace such as you have made." 

Little Wolf yielded. He and all the young men that were 
with him enlisted. 

During their march north the Cheyennes killed no citizens 
until after a cowboy had killed one of their young men who was 
off to one side. After that they killed some people, but against 
Little Wolf's order. His instructions from the first w^ere that 
they were to fight only those who attacked them, and always to 
let the soldiers shoot first. Little Wolf said: "We tried to avoid 
the settlements as much as possible. We did not want to be seen 
or known of. I often harangued my young men, telling them not 
to kill citizens, but to let them alone. I told them that they 
should kill all the soldiers that they could, for these were trying 
to kill us, but not to trouble the citizens. I know they killed 
some citizens, but I think not many. They did not tell me much 
of what they did, because they knew I would not like it." 



XXX 

THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 

1879 

Very different from the fortunes of Little Wolf and his party 
were those of Dull Knife. 

After the escaping Cheyennes had crossed the Platte River, 
Dull Knife went about through the camp haranguing and saying: 
"Now we have again reached our own ground, and from this 
time forth we will no more fight or harm any white people." Dull 
Knife declared that he was going straight to Red Cloud Agency, 
where he believed he and his people would be permitted to remain. 
He did not know that Red Cloud Agency had been discontinued. 

As they were marching toward where Red Cloud Agency had 
been, about half-way between White River and a little branch of 
the Running Water, as the Cheyennes were going over a hill 
October 23, 1878, they saw coming over another hill some soldiers 
who went down to the same stream that they intended to camp 
on. The meeting between the soldiers and the Indians was 
pure accident. When the troops were discovered Dull Knife 
spoke to his young men, reminding them of what he had said 
after they crossed the Platte River, and they kept on to a wide 
flat and camped. When the Indians came close to them the 
soldiers who were approaching fell in line, as if to fight, but Dull 
Knife told his head men to go toward the soldiers, and the\' met 
and shook hands. To the officer in command — Captain John- 
son, Third Cavalry — Dull Knife said : " We have come back home 
to go back to our old agency; you can return at once. We shall 
go to the agency as soon as we can get there." The soldiers turned 
about and marched back, and the Cheyennes followed them. 
The Indians camped on the stream and the soldiers camped near 
its head. 

At daylight next morning the Indians moved out and found 
that the soldiers had already gone. When they reached the 

399 



400 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

soldiers' camp they found there two boxes of hard bread, left, 
as they supposed, for their use, and they opened the boxes and 
divided the food among the people. Following the trail made 
by the soldiers, they crossed over to Chadron Creek, and late 
that night camped near the soldiers in a bend of the stream pointed 
out by the officers. While they were unpacking their loads the 
soldiers, many of whom still had saddles on their horses, rounded 
up the Indian ponies and drove them off to one side. After 
these had been taken away, and while the women were putting 
up the lodges, some of the people were called over to the soldiers' 
camp and were given rations, including sugar and coffee. It 
was supposed by the Indians that the soldiers must have sent out 
runners calling for more troops, for all through the night they 
could hear soldiers marching in, and when day came they found 
that the soldiers were camping all about them. The troops had 
brought big guns which stood on the hill overlooking the camp. 
With the soldiers who had come in during the night were some 
Sioux, and some of them came over and talked with the Chey- 
ennes and said to them : " Our agency used to be here, but now it is 
farther down the stream, but not far." 

That morning after they had eaten, the soldiers asked them 
to give up their arms and they did so. The Indians brought their 
old guns and piled them together, but some guns and pistols were 
hidden under the blankets and in the women's clothing. Bows 
and butcher-knives were not taken from them. The men were 
searched, but not the women. The wife of Black Bear, who was 
one of the prisoners confined in the barracks at Fort Robinson, 
said to me: "I had a carbine hanging down my back,'* 

For ten days they remained in that camp, and during this 
time there was much debate as to where the Indians should go. 
The officer in command wished to take them to Fort Robinson, 
while the Indians w^ished to go to the agency of which the Sioux 
had spoken to them. The Indians were beginning to get angry, 
and so were the soldiers. Neither side would yield. Nearly 
every night they could hear wagons coming in, and each morning 
there seemed to be more troops. The soldiers began to throw up 
breastworks and the Indians to dig rifle-pits. But they had only 
five guns. On the tenth day it looked as if there would be a 
fight. 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 401 

During all this time one of the officers was talking to them. 
He kept saying: "We just want you to come into the post and 
surrender there. Then you shall have plenty of rations and we 
intend to send you down to the agency." This was said to them 
so often that at last they believed it. 

After they had agreed to surrender, word must have been sent 
to the fort, for wagons came down and in them they put the women 
and children. The snow was quite deep. The wagons started 
and the men marched behind. After a time the men were told to 
get into the wagons, and they rode with the women and children. 
There were soldiers in front and soldiers behind, and two files of 
soldiers marched on either side of the wagon-train. They kept 
the wagons well closed up together. 

Presently the train reached the old abandoned Red Cloud 
Agency and then crossed a little creek, in which the snow lay deep. 
As they were crossing the stream a body of the Sioux scouts over- 
took them and crowded in between the wagons and the soldiers 
who were following them. The snowdrift's were so deep that the 
soldiers could not cross the stream close to the wagons, and were 
obliged to swing out on either side. Big Beaver, sitting on the 
end of a wagon, saw Bull Hump's wife roll up in a ball, and as the 
wagon crossed the creek throw herself out of the wagon into the 
deep snow. The Sioux scouts at once got around her and took 
her off with them and did not report it; so she escaped. The 
Sioux moved off to one side of the road so that the soldiers who 
were following the wagons could pass. 

It was about sundown when they reached Fort Robinson, 
and a long building was pointed out as the place where they 
were to remain. When they entered the building, they found 
that food was being cooked. The lamps were lighted, and they 
were counted. A list was made of those counted; and the names 
of the leading men were asked for and written down. These 
head men and chiefs w^ere Dull Knife, Bull Hump, Wild Hog, 
Tangle Hair, and Strong Left Hand. 

The next day after breakfast some officers came in and had 
a talk with them; and with the officers were some of the Sioux 
and Bull Hump's wife, now with her hair braided like a man, 
dressed and acting as a Sioux scout. 

There was then no Cheyenne interpreter at Fort Robinson, 



402 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and all the talking had to be done through two interpreters. 
Tangle Hair talked both Sioux and Cheyenne. He told the in- 
terpreter in Sioux what the Cheyenne said, and the interpreter 
told it in English to the commanding officer. 

The commanding officer said to Dull Knife : " Now, the fight- 
ing is over. We are friendly with one another. You must stay 
here for three months before the Government will decide whether 
to send you south or to send you to the Sioux. While you are 
here nothing bad will happen to you, but you must stay for 
three months. You will have the freedom of the post and may 
even go off into the mountains, but each night at supper time you 
must be here. If one man of you all deserts or runs away, you 
will not be treated like this any longer. You will all be held re- 
sponsible for him." 

Dull Knife rose to his feet and spoke to his people, telling 
them to do as they were told. He said: "We are back on our 
own ground, and have stopped fighting. We have found the 
place we started to come to." 

Things went on in this way for some time, and the people 
seemed contented. They had a good time, plenty to eat and 
nothing to fear. Old people used to go down to the stream and 
gather red-willow bark, and young people would go up on the 
mountains, but all were back by supper time. They used to have 
dances in the barracks. Sometimes the soldiers would go to the 
store and buy food for the next dance, and sometimes they gave 
presents of money to the girls they used to dance with, so that 
the girls might buy ornaments. For about two months they 
had a fine time. No people could have been better treated than 
they were. They thought their troubles were over. 

During this period some of the Cheyennes went out as scouts, 
and Tangle Hair told me that he was sometimes called out, given 
a horse, and sent to ride over the country looking for trails, to 
see if any people had passed by. 

One day, at the end of two months, the cook found a cup too 
many. A man was gone. They looked about to see who was 
absent, and found it was Bull Hump. His wife was at the Pine 
Ridge Agency, and he had gone to join her. The cook did not 
report the absence of Bull Hump until he had been away over 
three meals. When he reported it, the officers investigated and 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 403 

found that he had gone. So they counted the people over again 
and took away their liberty and locked them up. During the 
time the people had their liberty, no guards had been set over 
them, but after Bull Hump went they were locked in and sentries 
were put about the building. Two or three days later Bull Hump 
was brought back. 

About this time, James Rowland, who was living with his 
father, at Pine Ridge, went to Fort Robinson to do the inter- 
preting for the Cheyennes. 

Now the officers began to persuade the Indians to go back 
south, but Dull Knife, answering for his people, refused, always 
saying that they would not go south. "We will not go there to 
live. That is not a healthful country, and if we should stay there 
we would all die. We do not wish to go back there, and we will 
not go." 

The officers continued to urge them to consent, but Dull 
Knife did not waver. He said: "No, I am here on my own 
ground, and I will never go back. You may kill me here; but 
you cannot make me go back." 

For some days the commanding officer kept asking them to 
agree to go south, but when Captain Wessels found that they 
could not be moved, their rations were stopped, and they began 
literally to starve. In behalf of the commanding officer, it must 
be said that he tried to induce the women and children to come 
out of the barracks, leaving the men in there alone, but the young 
men would not consent to such separation. Wild Hog, Crow, 
and Strong Left Hand were induced to come out, and were taken 
into the guard-house, seized, and at least one of them put in irons. 
When the soldiers seized Wild Hog he drew his butcher-knife. 
It was said that he tried to kill the soldier and also that he tried 
to commit suicide. At all events, he cut himself and a man. 
While the soldiers were struggling with Wild Hog, Strong Left 
Hand ran out of the door and back to the barracks, and called 
out to those within: "They have got Wild Hog; they are going 
to handcuff him." All the young men in the barracks said : " Well, 
we must fight." They declared war that afternoon, and from 
that time forth they had no good answers to give to those who 
spoke to them. The young men ordered the wives of Wild Hog 
and Crow and their children and some of the old women out of 



404 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

the building, but Wild Hog's older son did not go out, and one 
of his daughters remained with her brother. 

After the women were taken out, the soldiers gave them no 
food and no water and no fuel. It was winter and bitterly cold. 
After Captain Wessels had begun to starve them. Dull Knife 
still said: "You can starve us if you like, but you cannot make 
us go south." Some of the Indians say that for eight days they 
had neither food nor water, but others say that they had no food 
for five days, and no water for three days. During this time all 
that they had to eat was such scraps as had been left over from 
previous meals. The little children used to try to slip out by the 
sentries to get water or snow, but they were always turned back. 
They had scraped away all the snow that had collected on the 
window-ledges. A little later the commanding officer had an- 
other talk, telling them that they must go south, but Dull Knife 
was firm. "We will not go," he said. "The only way to get us 
there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, 
and drag us out and take us down there dead. We have nothing 
to defend ourselves with, and if you want to you can come here 
with clubs and kill us like dogs." 

The Indians were now sullen and desperate and walked up 
and down in their prison, waiting for death. During these days 
of starvation some of them acted like a lot of drunken people. 
A young man would say: " I want to jump out now and be killed." 
Then the others would hold him and not let him do it. Others 
used to stand up and make speeches, saying: "We might as well 
be killed outside as starve here in this house." The women were 
just as brave as the men. 

They told the interpreter not to come in among them, and 
not to let any one else come in, for they would kill whoever came. 
A Cheyenne, then living at Pine Ridge, who went into the build- 
ing to talk to them, was attacked and would have been killed ex- 
cept for the intervention of a special friend. They talked through 
the window to the interpreter, telling him that they expected to 
die there and they hoped soon. A special friend of the interpreter — 
a young man named Bird — talked with him, and Rowland tried 
to persuade him to come out and go to the commanding officer, 
for he thought that perhaps he could induce Captain Wessels 
to set Bird free. The young man said: "No, I will stay here 
and die with the tribe." 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 405 

In the afternoon of January 9, 1879, Little Shield, a soldier 
chief, said to the others: "Now, dress up and j)ut on your best 
clothing. We will all die together." They had been saying to 
each other: "We will never go out and give up to these people 
to be taken back to the country we ran away from. We have 
given up our horses and our arms, and everything that we have, 
and now they are starving us to death. We have been without 
food and fire for seven days; we may as well die here as be taken 
back south and die there." As they kept thinking about this, 
and talking to each other, they said: "It is true that we must 
die, but we will not die shut up here like dogs; we will die on the 
prairie; we will die fighting." They all painted their faces, and 
put on their best clothing and their fancy moccasins, taking 
little precaution against the cold, though they were without fire 
and the mercury stood at zero. 

The five guns which they had saved had been hidden under 
the floor, and it is believed that they had eleven pistols with 
some ammunition. Most of these arms had been taken to pieces. 
The barrels and stocks of the rifles and the frames of the six- 
shooters, with the ammunition, had been hidden under the wom- 
en's clothing, but the small parts of the arms were distributed 
among the children as ornaments. The little things wore, one 
a trigger, another a hammer, and another a screw or a 
spring tied to the wrist or about the neck or in the hair. 
Almost every child had such an ornament. These were noticed, 
of course, but no special attention was paid to them. After the 
people were shut up they put the arms together, took up a board 
in the floor under the heating stove and there concealed the 
weapons. 

From their actions during this day it was suspected that be- 
fore long the Cheyennes would do something desperate, and the 
commanding officer put a chain-guard about the building. The 
beats of these sentries crossed each other, that is to say, a sen- 
try's beat did not end when he came to the end of the beat of the 
man next to him, but each one's beat overlapped those of the 
two on either side of him. 

Toward sunset, after all the Indians had put on their best 
clothing, they went about and kissed each other for the last time. 
Then, after sundown, a young man stood at each window. Un- 
der the windows they piled up their saddles, parfleches. and other 



406 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

things, so that all could easily step out of the window. Little 
Shield sat in the north window and other men at the other win- 
dows, the purpose being to shoot the guards. Little Shield was 
the first man who fired. As he fired the shot he knocked out the 
window-sash, and the others did the same, and then the people 
all jumped out of the windows. The wife of Black Bear was one 
of the first to get out. 

Five or sLx inches of snow covered the ground; there was not 
a cloud in the sky; the moon was full, and it was nearly as bright 
as day. The dwellers at the fort rushed to their doors to learn 
what was happening, saw the crowd of fugitives streaming across 
the post toward the creek, heard the shooting of the soldiers, and 
saw the people drop on the snow — here a child, there a man, then 
a woman. To the Indians looking back, the soldiers who rushed 
out of the barracks seemed all in white. Most of them had 
jumped out of bed, and were in their underclothes. 

Before they left the barracks, the Indians had tied on their 
blankets so as to leave the hands free. A blanket was tied about 
the neck and another about the waist. 

When the Indians jumped out of the windows they all rushed 
for the stream, and most of them on reaching it threw themselves 
down to drink. The bullets were flying fast. Many of them 
drank too much and afterward could hardly run. They all 
raced up the valley, cutting across the bends of the creek and 
crossing it, and frequently breaking through the ice, so that 
most of them were wet. The night was very cold but still. 
After they had gone a little way they were beginning to scatter; 
some were getting tired and falling behind, and some, longer- 
winded and with no babies to carry, were gaining on the others. 
It was hard to run in frozen clothing, and besides that they had 
starved so long that they had not much strength. The firing was 
continual; it did not stop. A woman said to me: "Some people 
who were ahead of me got to the top of the hill, but I got out of 
breath and stopped by a big tree with some other women. One 
of these was the wife of White Antelope. She was already 
wounded and White Antelope was carrying the baby. When the 
soldiers got up close. White Antelope rushed back on them with 
his knife and fought for a little while and was killed. When the 
soldiers had come up close, I was shot in the back and in the side 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 407 

of the head and knocked senseless, and knew notliing after 
that. Two other women were killed there." 

Some of the Indians did not get very far. Old Sitting Man, 
who, during the march from the south, had been wounded in the 
leg, jumped from a window, and when he struck the ground the 
leg broke again and he had to sit there. A soldier ran up to him 
and put the muzzle of a rifle against his head and fired, and the 
top of his head flew off. Later he was seen lying there with the 
top of his skull beside him in one place, and all his brains on the 
snow in another place. 

Enfeebled by starvation and encumbered by women and chil- 
dren, the Indians could not go fast, and the soldiers were soon close 
upon them. A man jumped on a horse and rode after the sol- 
diers. The dead scattered on the snow — most of them the women 
and children who were least swift of foot — made a trail easy to 
follow. After fugitives and pursuers had turned up into the 
hills, this man came upon a group of five women lying under some 
pines, all apparently dead except Dull Knife's daughter, who 
with her back against a tree trunk was just drawing her last 
breath. He tried to talk to her, but she was too far gone to speak 
aloud. On her back she had a little child — not her own — shot, 
and lying about were two or three other children, all of them dead. 
These women had run, carrying their babies, until they were ex- 
hausted and had then sat down here to rest and get their breath, 
and had been overtaken by the soldiers and killed as they sat. 

Between the time of the outbreak and daylight sLxty-five 
captives, many of them wounded, w'ere brought into the post. 
Next morning the commanding ofiicer sent out a detail of soldiers 
with SLX mule teams to bring in the dead. They found about 
fifty, w^hich were brought in and unloaded like logs. The sol- 
diers got into the full wagons and standing on the bodies took the 
frozen corpses by heads and feet and tossed them to the ground. 
After a wagon was partly unloaded, men standing on the ground 
reached in, took the bodies by the feet or head, dragged them out 
and let them drop to the ground. 

A boy thirteen or fourteen years old, who is still living, had 
the following experience: 

One group of people was ahead of the main body and the soldiers who 
had saddled up, in going around on horseback, came in between the leading 



408 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

party and those behind them. I did not understand the words of the troop 
commander, but he kept caUing out orders and the troops went by without 
firing a shot at us. They made a circle and came back in front of us and dis- 
mounted, and all the Indians dropped to the ground. Just as the people 
dropped the troops fired on them. A good many were killed here, but some 
young men jumped up and ran to and through the line of the soldiers who 
were standing ten or twelve feet apart and so escaped. I was not hit by 
bullets, but the powder from a close shot had burned me. 

After running a hundred yards we came to some great sandstone bluffs, 
in which there were large holes, and into these holes we crept. We could hear 
the women and children crying and at last the shooting stopped. Some 
time after it stopped, wagons were heard coming. In the wagons they must 
have loaded up all who were left alive, for as they went back, women could 
be heard crying. After this we heard the wagons coming back, and again 
going away, taking the dead. 

Next morning at daybreak we saw the soldiers marching in the direc- 
tion of the people who had gone on beyond, but only about a mile farther. 
When the soldiers came up with them we could hear the guns and the yelling. 
They fought there until sundowTi, and at that time a troop of cavalry came 
to where we were hidden. There were five of us and we had one gun and one 
pistol. The troops began to shoot into the holes where we were and kept 
shooting, and presently all had been killed except me. Wlien I looked about 
and saw that every one of my friends was dead, I did not know what to do. 
I waited and at length the soldiers stopped firing. 

I thought then that I might as well go out and be killed as stay in there, 
and I walked out of the hole in wliich I had been hidden and went toward the 
soldiers. A white man called out something and no one fired at me. The 
officer rode toward me and drew his sabre, but did not strike me with it. Wlien 
the officer had come close to me he reached out his hand and I stretched out 
my hand, and we shook hands. The officer called up his soldiers and they 
surrounded me. I was not tied up, but was helped up behind a soldier on his 
horse and taken into the post. 



The day that the bodies were brought In, Captain Wessels 
went into the prison and said to the captives: "Now, will you go 
south?" 

A girl who was badly wounded in the foot stood up, support- 
ing herself against the wall, and said: "No, we will not go back; 
we will die rather. You have killed most of us, why do you not 
go ahead now and finish the work?" 

A little company of fifteen, men, women and children, had gotten 
away together and were followed up by the troops and overtaken. 
They were in the Bad Lands and were caught up with and fought 
with about every other day. So long as they kept in the hills. 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 409 

it is said that they had no trouble in holding off the four troops 
of cavalry that pursued them, but they were weak and starving 
and wanted to get to Pine Ridge, where there were Indians who 
would feed and hide them, and they started down into the plains 
country to go there. The snow had disappeared but the weather 
had grown warm, so that the ground was soft and they could be 
trailed. They were followed. They did not know where the 
Pine Ridge Agency was, for it had been established after they had 
been sent south. They had sixty miles to go. On the plain they 
were overtaken and took refuge in an old buffalo wallow. Here 
the four troops of cavalry surrounded them, one at each angle of 
a square. The two troops which were nearly opposite each other 
kept up a continuous fire on the hole, while the two other troops 
at frequent intervals charged close up to it from opposite sides. 
The fire was so withering that a head could not be shown. The 
only way the Indians could shoot was to reach up a hand and fire 
gun or pistol without aim. The four troops of cavalry fought 
these people all day, and killed them all except three women, one 
of whom was wounded. 

The first time the troops overtook these fifteen people, Cap- 
tain Wessels wished to try to induce them to surrender. He 
asked Rowland, the interpreter, if he would go out with him and 
talk. Rowland said: "I don't much like to do this, captain. 
These people are desperate; they have not had an>i;hing to eat 
for a week, and if we get close enough to talk with them they are 
pretty sure to shoot us." 

Captain Wessels said to him rather contemptuously: "Are 
you afraid?" 

" Well, yes, I am afraid," said Rowland, " but if you want me 
to, I will go"; and go he did. He crept up as close as possible to 
the hole the Indians were hidden in, without showing himself, 
and Captain Wessels followed. Then Rowland stepped out on 
the hill and in plain sight, and called out to the Cheyennes that 
the commanding officer wanted them to give themselves up. 
Captain Wessels, who was behind Rowland, had just put his 
head up over the hill so that he could look by him, but had not 
exposed his body. The reply to Rowland's call was a bullet, 
which seemed to pass between the interpreter and the head of the 
commanding officer. Captain Wessels ducked down, lost his 



410 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

footing, rolled down the hill and ran off as fast as he could toward 
the troops. Rowland called out to him, asking if he did not 
want to talk any more. His reply was: "Come on," and the in- 
terpreter was glad to follow him. 

At the time of the outbreak from the barracks an opportunity 
was given to Tangle Hair to come out. An officer told him that if 
he and his family wished to leave the barracks, they would put 
him for a time in another place and then send him to Pine Ridge 
Agency. He was then the chief of the Dog Soldiers, and on the 
way north had always led the march of the camp while the young 
men scattered out over the country. 

When this suggestion was made, the young men threatened 
his life if Tangle Hair should attempt to leave the house. Little 
Shield, who did all the talking, said of him to the others: "This 
man cannot go out; he owns us and can do what he likes with us," 
referring, of course, to his chieftainship of this soldier band and 
to his being principal fighting man of the tribe. 

The night they jumped out of the window Tangle Hair was 
the first to jump out of his window, and four men were behind him 
• — among them Blacksmith and Noisy Walking. The five were 
armed, and stopped to fight off the soldiers until the women and 
children got started to run toward the hills. All five were soon 
shot down. Tangle Hair dragged himself to some soldiers' 
quarters, where the soldiers were sitting, and they took him in 
and sent for a doctor and had his wounds dressed. Before he had 
been there very long, wounded women began to be brought in. 

Dull Knife,^ his wife and son, and son's wife and child, to- 
gether with Red Bird, turned off from the course the Indians 
were keeping before most of the Cheyennes turned up into the 
hills. They found a great hole in the rocks and hid there. The 
soldiers lost their trail and did not find them. They remained 
there for ten dajs and almost starved to death. Then Dull 
Knife and his family set out for Pine Ridge Agency and after 
eighteen days' wandering, travelling at night, eating their moc- 
casins, and such roots as they could find, and some sinew which 
one of the women had, came to the house of William Rowland, 
the interpreter at Pine Ridge, and told the story of their suffering. 

1 Dull Knife — this name is the translation of his Sioux name; his Chey- 
enne name is Morning Star, Wo'he hiv'. 



THE FORT ROBINSON OUTBREAK 411 

Red Bird, who was wounded, remained in the hole, but reached 
Pine Ridge Agency later. Though only a boy, he still carried on 
his back the ancient shield given him that night just before the 
outbreak by his uncle, who had received it many years before 
from his father.^ 

Of about one hundred and fifty Cheyennes who had been 
confined in the barracks up to this time, sixty-four were killed 
in the outbreak, about fifty-eight were sent to Pine Ridge, about 
twenty to the south, while eight or ten were never again heard 
of, and no doubt were killed or starved to death in the hills. 
Those who were left alive drifted up to Fort Keogh, or in later 
years were transferred to the Tongue River Indian Reservation, 
where some of them are living to-day. Among these are many 
cripples who bear the scars of wounds received at Fort Robinson. 

Dull Knife died about 1883, and is buried on a high butte 
near the valley of the Rosebud River. Little Wolf lived on the 
Tongue River Indian Reservation in Montana for nearly thirty 
years. He grew old and blind and was poor and helpless, but he 
was a great man to the end. 

^ This shield afterward came into my possession, and is now on exhibition 
at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. 



XXXI 

SCOUTING FOR THE SOLDIERS 

After the surrender of the Northern Cheyennes to General 
Miles, practically all the young and middle-aged men enlisted 
as scouts. They were furnished with horses, arms, and ammuni- 
tion, and rendered effective service not only in fighting the still 
hostile Sioux, but even in locating and fighting with those camps 
of their own people that had not yet surrendered. This was 
not the first time the Cheyennes had served as scouts for the 
troops, for in 1876 some of them had served under General Crook 
and taken part in the fight in which Dull Knife's village was 
destroyed. 

The Cheyennes enjoyed the service, and made excellent 
scouts. Fully trusted and with absolute freedom to go and come, 
they were faithful to their duties. One of them once said to me: 
"My friend, I was a prisoner of war for four years, and all the 
time was fighting for the man who had captured me." 

From 1877 to 1880 the northern country was still more or 
less overrun by Indians who were hostile, and carrying on w^ar — 
killing white people or taking horses whenever the opportunity 
offered. These small groups were not large enough to fight with 
any body of troops, but they were well provided with horses, 
knew the country thoroughly, and were skilful in misleading the 
troops, or, when too closely followed up, in concealing their own 
trail. 

The pursuit of such people was hard but fascinating work. 
Almost everyone enjoys hunting, but the hunting of men, when 
hunter and hunted are equally acute, watchful, and brave, pos- 
sesses peculiar attractions. 

Of the men who took part in such scouting some of the younger 
ones are still alive, and the memory of these chases and battles 
remains vivid. Told in simple Indian fashion, their stories pos- 
sess a very great interest for people who knew something of the 

412 



SCOUTING FOR THE SOLDIERS 413 

old wild days. Not long ago such a tale — of one of the little 
Indian fights in the northern country — was told me by Willis 
Rowland, who took part in it. He is an educated half-breed, 
and at the time was seventeen or eighteen years old. 

On Beaver Creek, about thirty-five miles from Glcndive, 
Montana, there was a camp of four companies of cavalry, com- 
manded by Captain Bell. To this camp, in the summer of 1880, 
had been assigned three Cheyenne Indians — prisoners of war who 
were acting as scouts — Shell, Howling Wolf, Big-Footed Bull — ■ 
and Willis Rowland, who acted as scout and interpreter. He 
was the only one who could speak English. 

In August news was received that a stage-driver had been 
killed by Indians near the head of Cabin Creek, and Captain 
Bell sent out two or three parties to scout the country, and secure 
information about the affair. The news reached the camp a day 
or two after the driver had been killed, and for this reason it 
seemed unlikely that those who had made the attack would be 
found. Willis Rowland tells what happened to the scouting 
party that he was with: 

With eight soldiers, we four scouts were sent out from Beaver Creek, 
and crossed over — sixty miles — to the head of Cabin Creek. A heutenant 
with twenty men was to have gone up Cabin Creek from Glendive to meet 
us at the stage station, but did not reach there that night. 

When we reached the mail station, we asked the keeper where it was 
that the stage-driver had been killed tlu-ee or four days before. He told us 
to go on to the next station, and we went twenty miles along the stage road 
to another station, and there met two Sioux scouts and twelve soldiers. There 
was no officer with them. These men said that they had found the body of 
the stage-driver; but the Sioux who had killed him were gone, and they could 
not find the trail. 

Howling Wolf said to me: "You tell our sergeant that these Sioux are 
lying. They are hiding the trail. We ought to keep on further, and our- 
selves try to find it and follow it up." The other party of soldiers went back, 
following the road we had just passed over, and we kept on our way about 
five miles, and then turned off to the right toward the head of a little ravine. 
Shell had said: "We had best turn off to those badlands there — at the edge 
of the Rattlesnake Butte. If any Indians have done mischief here, they are 
pretty sure to have gone toward those hills." 

About a mile beyond where we left the road, Shell said to me: "Go back 
now and tell the sergeant to keep his men half a mile behind us, while we look 
for the trail." 

I gave the message to the sergeant, who was about fifty yards behind us, 



414 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

and he said that he would keep back, but told me to notify him if any sign 
was found. 

When I returned to Shell, he said to me: "You two young men go off to 
the left, and Howling Wolf to the right, and I will go straight ahead. When 
you reach that point half a mile further on and Howling Wolf gets to that 
other point, turn and cross each other and I will go straight ahead." Before 
us was a wide flat on which grew some sage-brush, but with wide, bare spots, 
where tracks could easily be seen. 

"If you see a track," Shell went on, "do not call, but make a sign. We 
must watch one another." 

We had gone only a quarter of a mile, when Howling Wolf stopped and 
began to ride in a circle to call us to him. We all went over to where he was. 

He said: "I have found a track, but it is a mule track." 

"That is good," said Shell, "it will be easy to follow." To me he said: 
"Go back and tell the sergeant that here, where we can see well and the trail 
is easy to follow, we shall go along on a lope." They waited until I came back, 
and then Shell had us spread out in a line abreast and about twenty-five 
yards apart, the two younger men on his left and Howling Wolf on his right. 

"When I lose the track," he said, "I will stop and you boys then ride 
across and look for it." 

We followed the trail at a lope and trot for ten miles, and lost it only once. 
Presently we came close to a big hill, and Shell said: "Let us stop here and 
take a look through the field-glasses from the top of this hill. Besides that 
our horses will have a chance to rest." 

We rode nearly to the top of the hUl and dismounted and sat down, and 
Howling Wolf went on foot to the top of the hill to look. Everywhere there 
were buffalo and all were quiet and unfrightened. This seemed a sure sign 
that no one had gone by lately. We had passed many scattered horse tracks 
— fifteen or sixteen animals — but these had not joined the mule tracks. 

Just after we had turned off the mule trail to go to the top of the hill, 
we two boys thought we heard a shot far off, but the older men had not heard 
it and thought we were mistaken. On the hill, however, a shot was heard 
by all four, and Howling Wolf said: "The boys were right; yet the buffalo are 
all quiet." 

We could see nothing from the hilltop and were thinking of going back to 
our horses, but before we started Howling Wolf took a last look. He looked 
for a long time, and then said: "I have discovered something. It looks like 
two people, and there seems to be something on the ground in front of them." 
He handed the glass to Shell, who, after he had looked, said: "To me it looks 
like two people butchering an animal." He gave the glasses to me. What I 
saw looked like two people on the ground with horses a few feet from them 
and the figures seemed to be bending over what was on the ground. 

Shell said to me: "Go back and tell the sergeant what we have seen." 

"Let us wait a little while," I replied. "If they are people, it will not take 
them long to cut up that animal, and when we see them ride away we shall 
know more." 

Howling Wolf kept watching with the glasses, and presently said: "We 



SCOUTING FOR THE SOLDIERS 415 

must stay here and watch. I think they are camped down in this creek not 
far from us. Just now I saw some horses come up out of it on a Uttle point." 

We all crept up and could see the horses with tlie naked eye. It was now 
getting late in the afternoon. When the soldiers had reached the foot of the 
hill we were on, they stopped and dismounted. 

Howling Wolf was watching all the time and reporting to us what he saw. 
He said: "Those two men have left the place; now they have gone up on the 
ridge; they are coming this way; now they have gone out of sight. They are 
going to the creek and will follow it down. When they do that we can go 
down from the hill." 

We had been traveUing south and the little creek spoken of runs into the 
Little Missouri River. After a time we left the hill and went down to the 
sergeant. By Shell's direction I told him that we must go up on a ridge half 
a mile to the east of where we were and there leave our packs and lighten 
up the loads on our saddles for the pursuit. The sergeant said: "Now you 
scouts must lay the plans how to get the Indians. I will follow and support 
you." Our horses were tired for we had come a long way that day. 

We had to go about three miles before coming to the little creek which 
joined the one on which the enemy were camped. We struck it above where 
the Sioux were and followed down the stream at a run. We had not seen the 
Sioux nor anything to show us how many of them there were. Before we 
reached the mouth of the side creek Howling Wolf rode off a hundred yards 
to a little rise and looked over it. He made signs to us that he could see the 
two men going down into the creek, and as soon as they were out of sight he 
signed to us to go ahead. He pointed to a ridge three-quarters of a mile away, 
and said: "They have just gone over that ridge; we had best ride fast and get 
there." As we went, it seemed to me that the horses made an unusual amount 
of noise as they ran. When we reached the ridge we stopped, and Howling 
Wolf rode half-way up and dismounted and walked to the top. When he 
had looked over, he signed: "They are going up the hill — they have reached 
the top — they have gone over it." He came down to his horse and motioned 
us forward, and I heard him tell Shell what he had seen. There were four 
Sioux and they had a bunch of horses. Two of them seemed to have stopped 
on the creek and held the horses, while two had gone off to kill a buffalo. 

We went over the hill and rode across a flat half a mile wide. At the next 
ridge, when Howling Wolf looked, he signed at once: "All dismount." We 
did so and rushed up to him. There were the four Sioux about two luindred 
and fifty or three hundred yards off. One was riding ahead on a little mule; 
following him came the horses and three Sioux rode behind. 

We began to shoot at once. The first man hit was the one on the mule. 
His leg was broken and he fell off his animal. The other three ran about a 
hundred yards and passed over the hill and out of sight. Their horses stam- 
peded. 

We ran back to our horses and mounted to follow the three Sioux. Howl- 
ing Wolf and Big-Footed Bull set out after tlie Sioux horses, while Shell and 
the soldiers and I went after the Sioux. We had gone half a mile when we 
saw a Sioux. He turned about and rode toward us. When 1 came to the 



416 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

top of the hill he was only about fifty yards off. At first I did not see him 
and Shell pulled me back. Nevertheless, I rode up on the hill and we all 
fired and knocked the man off his horse. A little farther on we came to an- 
other Sioux who was badly wounded, and we killed him. He had an old muz- 
zle-loading rifle, not loaded. The Sioux had been shooting, and this man 
was perhaps too weak from his wounds to reload his gun. The fourth Sioux 
ran for a long way and we shot at him as far as we could see him. Presently 
he rode up on a point and sat looking at us and then turned and rode back 
toward us and around a point to where the first man killed lay, and then he 
rode off. He had perhaps come back to get the dead man's gun, a good 
Winchester rifle. We had dismounted and gone down into a ravine to kill 
the second Sioux and now had to run back to our horses, and before we had 
mounted the fourth man was nearly half a mile away. Just as we reached 
the first man killed, Howling Wolf returned to us with the horses. Four of 
them carried packs and in the packs were bundles of letters and of news- 
papers, showing that these were the men who had killed the stage-driver. 
We turned the mail over to the sergeant. 

We now rode back to where our packs were, and when we reached them 
Shell said: "Let us leave these soldiers and go home and have a dance over 
our scalps." 

It was about foiu- o'clock when we started over toward Cabin Creek. 
There, near the stage station, we met the lieutenant and twenty soldiers, 
who had arranged to meet us there the day before. He scolded us for not 
waiting for liim and called up the sergeant and severely reprimanded liim. 

That night the Cheyenne Indians went home, but said that they would 
wait half a day for me on Powder River. I spoke to the sergeant that night 
and he advised me to start early in the morning, because the lieutenant had 
threatened to make me walk the next day. I started early and followed the 
stage road to Keogh. 

These scouts under General Miles did such excellent work 
that the idea occurred to Lieutenant E. W. Casey to get author- 
ity to enlist a company of scouts who should be subjected to the 
discipline of soldiers — drilled so that they might be effective not 
only as scouts, but also as a military body. The scouts enlisted 
by General Miles had not been under any special discipline. 
Lieutenant Casey enlisted such a company of scouts in the winter 
of 1889-90. Many of the young men were glad to serve as sol- 
diers, for life on the reservation was monotonous, and the pay 
would be very welcome. 

For a time the company lived in tents, and then began to get 
out logs in the mountains and build quarters for themselves not 
far from Fort Keogh. Lieutenant Casey was in command of 
the scouts, and Lieutenant Getty was his lieutenant. William 



SCOUTING FOR THE SOLDIERS 417 

Rowland was the interpreter, and his son Willis was first sergeant 
of the company. 

In the summer of 1890 I stopped at Fort Kcogh to sec Lieu- 
tenant Casey, who many years before had been my schoolmate. 
Unluckily, as he was up in the mountains getting out timl)cr, I 
missed him, but I saw his scouts and was interested in the promise 
they gave of making an excellent body of soldiers. The same 
year Lieutenant — now Colonel — Homer W. WTieeler enlisted a 
company of soldiers from the Southern Cheyennes and Arap- 
ahoes. 

In the autumn of 1890, when the Ghost Dance excitement was 
at its height and collisions between the Sioux and the troops had 
already taken place. Lieutenant Casey's troop of Cheyennes was 
called out and marched to the scene of the trouble. Here a little 
later Casey was shot from behind by a young Sioux Indian named 
Plenty of Horses after he had talked pleasantly with the young 
man, had shaken hands with him, and turned his horse to ride 
away. His body was recovered by the scouts, who were devoted 
to him. 

This was the last fighting done by the Cheyenne Indians. 
On two or three occasions during the last twenty-five years men 
moved by one motive or another have killed white men on the 
Tongue River Indian Reservation, and a few years ago the local 
newspapers at times printed reports of outbreaks by the Chey- 
ennes which never took place. Considering the conditions of 
reservation life and the number of the people, there is, perhaps, 
less crime among the Cheyennes than in any community of the 
same size in the United States. 

The fighting days of the Cheyennes have passed. They are 
now learning the difficult lesson of civilization and work, but the 
lesson of thrift they have as yet hardly begun to learn. This 
we may hope will come later. 

If the Indian Bureau should adopt a broad and definitely 
settled policy — one sufiiciently elastic to be adaptable to the 
needs of each of the different Indian reservations — the progress 
of the race toward civilization would be hastened; but such a 
policy cannot be thought out and set on foot witliout preparation. 
Before it could be outlined, the Bureau would require a vast 
amount of information as to conditions on most reservations. 



418 THE FIGHTING CHEYENNES 

which it now absolutely lacks and which it would take a long 
time to get together. Even if such a policy were adopted, it 
seems quite likely that at the end of four years it would be 
changed again, and the new officials — as their predecessors have 
so often done — would begin to tear down what the previous 
administration had built up, and a new Indian Commissioner 
would try out his theories on these helpless people. There is 
little hope of any rapid advance of the Indians under present 
conditions. Yet, unconsciously, they are changing, and will con- 
tinue to change, and the time is coming, perhaps sooner than we 
think, when the Indians will be a component and useful part of 
the population of the country. 



INDEX 

[The tribal name Cheyenne, which appears on almost every page, ia not 

indexed.] 



Abert. Lieutenant J. W., 74, 118. 

Adobe walls, 71, 308. 

Alcohol, effect of, 94. 

Algonquian family, 1. 

Alights on the Cloud, 71; death of, 75, 77. 

Allison, 156. 

Alma, Kansas, 218. 

American Anthropologist, 67, 120. 

American Horse (Cheyenne), 340. 

American Horse (Sioux), 346. 

American Museum of Natural History, 

New York, 411. 
Ammunition of Indians, 340. 
Anadakos, 71. 
Anadarko, 122, 310. 
Anderson, Major, 218. 
Andrus, Colonel E. P., vi. 
Angry, 10. 

Ankle (Big Ankle), 379. 
Antelope Hills, 71, 290. 
Antelope Pit River, 33, 194. 
Antelope skin, 133. 

Anthony, Major Scott, 146, 155, 159, 162. 
Aorta men, 58. 
Apaches, 4, 14, 35, 43, 45, 55, 58, 59. 60, 

61, 62. 64, 69, 259, 260, 265. 
Apaches, Moimtain, 309. 
Apaches, Prairie, 34, 98, 116. 
Appointment of Joint Committee of 

Congress, 170. 
Appropriation to carry out treaty, 287. 
Arapahoes, 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 29, 30, 31, 34. 

35, 40, 43, 45, 48, 49, 51, 52, 55, 56, 

57, 59, 61, 80, 82, 83, 93, 98, 100, 

119, 120, 123, 124. 129, 141. 142. 

143. 160, 166. 174. 195, 224, 236, 259, 

272. 288, 308. 335. 346. 
Arapahoes, Southern, 42. 45. 57. 
Arickaree Fork (of Republican), 72, 126. 
Ankara, 5. 8, 22, 33. 
Arkansas River, 13, 18 el seq. 
Armor, 71. 

Arms in Custer fight, 339. 
Arrow keeper, 58, 67; lodge, 67. 
Arrows, medicine, 67, 296. 
Arrows, sacred, of Pita hau i' rat, 77, 79. 
Asbury, Captain, 237. 
Ash Creek, 138. 
Ash HoUow. 100, 105, 107. 
Assiniboines, 4. 
Atseuas, 29. 



Attack on .Tulosburg, 175; official notlcoa 

of. 179. 
Attack on mail driver. 108. 
Augur, General, 259. 

B 

Bad Face. 97. 

Bad Face — band of Ogallala, 225. 

Bad Heart, 273. 303. 

Bad Man. 290. 

Baker Fight, 105. 

Bald Faced Bull, 75, 305. 

Ball, Captain, 379. 

Bancroft. History of Colorado, 93, 119, 
163. 

Bannocks. 351. 

Bamit, Captain, 251. 

Battle of Summit Springs. 299. 

Battle of the Washita, 105, 287. 

Battle on Wolf Creek. 42. 

Bayard. Samuel J., 116. 

Bayard. Second Lieutenant George 
DashieU, 116. 

Bear Above, 43. 

Bear Butte. 196. 

Bear Feathers ( = Feathered Bear), 278. 

Bear Making Trouble, 253. 

Bear Man, 136, 167. 

Bear Shield, 290. 

Bear That Scatters, 102. 

Beard, 60. 

Beaver Claws, 320. 

Beaver Creek. 15. 50. 57, 77, 134, 244. 
368, 413. 

Beaver Dam, 349, 363. 

Beaver River. 59. 

Beckwith. Jim, 163. 

Beckwourth, James. 163. 

Beecher Island, 208. 

Beecher Island Fight, 267. 

Beecher, Lieutenant Fred, 267. 

Before Sand Creek, 143. 

Bell. Captain, 413. 

Bennett, Captain. 314. 

Bennett, Honorable H. P., 143. 

Benson, Thomas, 3:51. 

Bent, Agent, 118. 

Bent. Chariie. 167. 

Bent. George, vi. 27, 41. 99, 115. 119. 
133, 152. 170. 174. 198. 199. 261. 
308; account of Sand Crock Massa- 
cre, 170; death reported, 157, 241. 



419 



420 



INDEX 



Bent, Joe, 199. 

Bent, Robert, 163. 

Bent, Colonel William W., 35, 111, 116, 

153, 199, 236, 308. 
Benteen, Captain, 333. 
Bent's Fort, 2, 18, 32, 45, 48, 58, 59, 61, 

104, 115, 118, 308. 
Bent's New Fort, 13, 116. 
Bent's Old Fort, 308. 
Berdash, 228. 

Beyond the Mississippi, 119. 
Bienville, 35. 
Big Ankle, 378. 
Big Beaver, 394, 401. 
Big Bend of the Rosebud, 331, 349. 
Big Breast, 49, 55. 
Big Crow (Cheyenne), 176, 366. 
Big Crow (Sioux) = Two Face, 181. 
Big Footed BiUl, 413. 
Big Goose Creek, 231. 
Big Hawk, 75. 

Big Head, 88, 110, 253, 283, 367. 
Big Horn expedition, 348. 
Big Horn Mountains, 196, 210, 349. 355, 

367. 
Big Horn River, 199, 316, 356. 
Big Horse, 209. 
Big Nose, 229. 
Big Old Man, 36. 
Big Piney Creek, 222. 
Big Prisoner, 29. 
Big Sand Creek, 10, 132. 
Big South Bend (of Sand Creek), 164. 
Big Springs, 226. 

Big Timbers (of Republican River), 180. 
Big Treaty, 69, 96. 
Big Wolf, 299. 
Bijou Basin, 132. 
Bijou Creek, 36. 
Bird, 404. 
Bird Bear, 366. 
Bird Bow, 121. 
Bird, Private, 133, 138. 
Birdwood Creek, 69. 
Bitter Water, 260. 
Black Bear, 115, 200, 370, 400, 406. 
Black Butte Creek, 14. 
Black Coyote, 321. 
Black Deer, 259. 
Black Eagle, 260, 294. 
Blackfeet, 5, 32. 
Blackfoot (Sioux), 181. 
Black Hairy Dog, 110, 355, 359, 361. 
Black Hawk, 369. 
Black HUls, 4, 33, 108, 117, 195, 205, 

221, 316. 
Black Kettle, 88, 127, 140, 153, 161, 170, 

236, 244, 260, 288, 298. 
Black Lake, 36. 
Black Leg, 225. 

Black Moccasin (or Iron), 1, 225, 369. 
Black Moon, 278. 
Black Shield. 225. 
Black Shin, 40. 
Blacksmith, 410. 
Black Sun, 278, 304. 
Black Whetstone, 205. 



Black White Man (negro), 213. 

Black Wolf, 76. 

Blind Wolf, 213. 

Bloody Knife, 343. 

Blue River, 104. 

Blunt, Major-General, 154 el seq. 

Blunt's Fight, plan of, 156. 

Bobtail Horse, 338. 

Bobtailed Porcupine, 283. 

Boggs's Manuscripts, 104. 

Boone, 120. 

Boone, A. G., 120. 

Boone, Daniel, 120. 

Booneville, 120, 162. 

Bordeaux, James, 103, 104, 126. 

Bordeaux's Trading Post, 100, 103. 

Bourke, Captain John, 316, 355, 368. 

Bow String Soldiers, 14, 42, 60, 85, 94, 

209. 
Box Elder Creek, 144. 368. 
Bozeman road, 222, 232. 
Bozeman trail, 202, 221. 
Brackett's History of the U. S. Cavalry, 

114. 
Bradley, Lieutenant J. H., 26. 
Braided Locks, 365, 367. 
Bralnard, Colonel D. L., vi, 379, 381. 
Brave Bear, 362. 
Brave Eagle, 378. 
Brave Wolf, 134, 337, 373, 374, 382, 

396. 
Breaks the Arrow, 283. 
Brown, Captain Fred H., 223, 235. 
Brulo Sioux, 70, 215, 252. 
Brules, 102, 123, 215. 
Bruyere, 370. 376. 
Buffalo Calf Road Woman. 324. 
Buffalo cap. 67; in war. 68. 
Buffalo destruction by whites, 125, 129. 
Buffalo hat, 53. 
Buffalo Wallow Woman, 366. 
Buffalo Woman, 292. 
Build the Fire in the South, 42. 
Bull. 59. 70. 98. 
Bull Bear, 128, 199, 208, 241. 
Bull Head, 369. 
Bull Hump (Comanche), 35, 36, 39, 62; 

(Cheyenne). 229. 352, 353, 362, 365, 

401. 
BuUet Proof, 282. 
Bimch of Timber River, 108, 174. 
Bunker Hill, 249. 
Bureau of Ethnology, Annual Reports, 

24, 44. 97. 225. 
Burns Red (in the Sun). 352. 
Burnt All Over, 245. 248. 
Burnt Thigh (Sioux). 80. 
Burton. Lieutenant, 139. 



Cabin Creek, 413, 416. 

Cache la Poudre River, 20, 125, 151. 

Caddos, 71. 122. 

Calf. 338. 

Calhoim. Lieutenant. 345. 

California trail, 116. 



INDEX 



421 



Camp Alert, 116. 

Camp Comior, 196, 204, 222. 

Camp Creek, 187. 

Camp Dodge, 211. 

Camp Mitchell, 187, 216. 

Camp Robinson, 348. 

Camp Sanborn, 137. 

Camp Supply, 289. 

Camp Weld, 132. 

Camp Wichita, 289. 

Canadian River, 56, 71, 388. 

Canadian River, North, 59. 

Canadian River, South, 56, 308, 

Cantonment, Oklahoma, 209, (Tongue 

River) 379. ' 
Capture of Dull Knife's village, 346. 
Capture of Jxilesburg Station, 178. 
Carpenter, Colonel L. H., 280. 
Carpenter Fight, 282. 
Carr, General E. A., 285, 299. 
Carries the Otter, 115. 
Carrington, General H. B., 206, 222, 235. 
Carrying the Shield in Front, 79. 
Carson, Kit, 71, 132, 236, 308. 
Carver, 34. 

Casey, Lieutenant E. W., 379, 382, 416. 
Casper, Natrona County, 211. 
Century Alagazine, 334. 
Ceremonial march, 85. 
Chadron Creek, 347, 400. 
Charcoal Butte, 395. 
Charge on Forsyth, the, 273. 
Chariot, Major, 154. 
Cheans, 35. 
Cherokees, 122. 
Cherry Brush Creek, 16. 
Cherry Creek, 18, 299. 
Cheyenne Bottom, 156. 
Cheyenne Culture Hero, 3. 
Cheyenne name for Crook flght, 324. 
Cheyenne Pass, 29, 121, 134. 
Cheyenne River, 33. 
Cheyenne, Wyoming, 29. 
Cheyennes, not indexed. 
Chief Comes in Sight, 297, 320, 338. 
Chief Joseph, 383. 
Chief Soldiers, 209. 
Chisholm, Jesse, 263. 
Chivlngton, Colonel J. M., 131, 135, 144, 

154. 
Chivington's report on Sand Creek, 168. 
Chouteau's Island, 48. 
Chubby Roan Horse, 47. 
Cimarron Crossing, 245, 249. 
Cimarron River, 49, 390. 
CivU War, 122, 196. 
Clark, Ben, 3, 289. 
Clark, Lieutenant W. P., 347, 351, 395, 

397. 
Clear Creek, 217, 224. 368, 369. 
Cloud Chief, 274. 
Cloud Peak, 196. 
Coal Bear, 355. 
Coal Creek, 144. 
Cody, WlUiam F., 301. 
Cold Face, 259. 
Cold Feet. 259. 



Cole, Colonel N., 195. 

Colley, S. G., U. S. Indian Agent, 124, 

125, 128, 146, 1.52, 159, 169. 
Collins, Colonel, 187. 
Collins, Lieutenant Caspar, 198, 214, 

219. 
Colmar, Mrs., 332. 
Colorado, 18, 119. 120, 123. 
Colorado State Historical Association. 

104. 
Columbas, Nebraska, 123, 195. 
Colyer, special agent, 280. 
Comanches, 4, 10, 32, 43, .50, 59, 69, 71, 

9S, 121, .308. 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 120, 143. 
Confederate plot rumored, 144. 
Confederates, 121. 

Connor, General P. E., 161, 195, 217. 236. 
Contraries, 43, 232. 
Contrary Belly, 323, 338. 
Cooke, General P. St. G., 104, 235. 
Cooley, 376. 
Cooley House, 381. 
Cosgrove, Tom, 349, 351. 
Cottonwood Fork, 109. 
Cottonwood Springs, Nebraska, 145, 250. 
Coues, ElUot, 35, 94. 
Council at Denver, 153. 
Court House Rock, 45, 300. 
Coutant, History of Wyormng, 214. 
Coyote, 107, 313. 
Coyote Ear, 45, 115. 
Cramer, Lieutenant, 164. 
Crane, 19. 
Crawford, Governor, 237, 249. 250, 260, 

288. 
Crawling, 366. 
Crazy Dogs, 209. 
Crazy Head, 370. 
Crazy Horse, 316, 349, 355, 368. 369, 

370, 383. 
Crazy Lodge, 259. 
Crazy Mule, 225, 312, 370. 
Crazy Woman's Fork, 196, 349. 
Crittenden, Lieutenant, 345. 
Crook, General, 316, 385, 412. 
Crooked Creek, 49. 
Crooked Hand, 77. 
Crooked Lance Society, 53, 209, 360. 
Crooked Lance Soldiers. 22, 85. 
Crooked Neck, 49, 53, 57. 
Crooked Nose, 318. 
Crook's Fight on the Rosebud, 316. 
Crow (name), 358, 387. 403. 
Crow Battle, A, 22. 
Crow Chief, 136. 
Crow Creek, 29, 31. 
Crow Indian, 80. 
Crow Neck, 290. 
Crow Necklace. 356, 361. 
Crow Split Nose, 360. 
Crow Standing Creek. 23, 368. 
Crow Standing Off Crock, 23, 228. 
Crows. 4, 22, 33, 34, 40, 69, 80. 98. 134, 

355. 
Culver, 269. 
Curly, 352. 



422 



INDEX 



Curly Hair. 297. 

Culture Hero, 67. 

Curtis, General S. R., 131, 138, 144, 146, 

155, 169, 197. 
Custard, Sergeant Amos J., 198, 219. 
Custer Battle, The, 333. 
Custer, Captain Thomas, 341. 
Custer, General G. A., 207, 235, 240, 254, 

289, 316, 353, 369. 
Custer, Mrs. E. B.. 243. 

D 

Dakotas, 2, 34. 

Dark, 112. 

Darlington, Oklahoma, 314. 

Davis, President Jefferson, 121. 

Davis, J. L., 332. 

Davis, T. R., 242. 

Davis, Captain Wirt, 352. 

Dead Man's Fork, 217. 

Deaf Man, 55. 

Death of Mouse's Road, 10. 

Death song of White Antelope, 171. 

Deep Holes Creek, 187. 

Deer Creek, 211, 218. 

Delaney, Lieutenant Hayden, 347, 351. 

Delawares, 73, 87, 116, 122, 155. 

Denver, 40, 119, 149, 221, 247, 249. 

Depredations, list of (January-Febru- 
ary, 1865), 184. 

De Rudio, Lieutenant, 342. 

De Smet, Reverend P. J., 71, 96. 

Diary of Scout Whitney, 269. 

Dirt on the Nose, 82. 

"Dixie," 122. 

Dixon, BiUy, 311. 

Dodge City, 310, 390. 

Dodge, Colonel Henry, 94. 

Dodge, Colonel R. I., 346. 

Dodge, General G. M., 195, 197, 199, 205, 
215 217 236. 

Dog Soldiers', 2, 14, 27, 45, 46, 60, 61, 
80, 85, 120, 209, 211, 236, 239, 243, 
245, 249, 410. 

Dole, Commissioner Indian Aflfairs, 154. 

Doolittle, Honorable J. B., 170, 236. 

Douglas, Arizona, 72. 

Douglas, Major, 237, 260. 

Downing, Major, 135. 

Drew, Lieutenant W. Y., 218. 

Dripp's Trading Post, 111. 

Driven Creek, 394. 

Dry Throat, 273. 

Dull Knife (= Morning Star), 199, 225, 
351, 353, 355, 383, 384, 388, 392, 394, 
399, 401. 411, 412. 

Dull Knife outbreak, 107. 

Dunn, J. P., Jr., 105. 

Dimn, Lieutenant, 134. 

Dusty Chief, 78. 

Dutisne, 35. 



E 



Eagle Chief, 77. 
Eagle Feather, 62. 



Eagle Head, 20, 21, 289. 

Eagle's Nest, 245, 248, 249. 

Eagle Tail, 14, 15, 18. 

Early travels and adventures, 255. 

Ear Ring, 76. 

East, J. H., 72. 

Eastern Indian trappers, 72. 

Eastman, C. A., 344. 

Eayre. Lieutenant G., 132, et seq. 

Ehyoph'sta, 297, 366. 

Eight Horns, 277. 

Eighteenth Infantry, 223. 

Eighth Kansas Cavalry, 124. 

Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, 211, 219, 220. 

Eleventh Kansas Regiment at Platte Bridge, 

218. 
Elk Horn Scrapers, 14, 18. 
Elk Moimtain Creek, 356. 
Elk River, 352. 
EUiot, Major, 289. 
Ellsworth, Lieutenant, 187. 
Elston, 215. 
Ermine Bear, 274. 
Eubanks, Mrs., 148, 181. 
Evans, Governor, 120, et seq. 
Ewers, Captain, 372. 
Executive Document 41, 30th Congress, 

1st Session, 118. 

P 

Faircliild, S. H.. 218. 

Fall Leaf, 116. 

Farley, George, 395. 

Feathered Bear ( = Bear Feathers), 97. 

283. 
Feathered Sim, 326. 

Fett«rman, Captain W. J., 221, 223. 235. 
Fetterman Massacre, 235. 
Fifth Cavalry, 352. 
Fifth Infantry, 379, 381. 
Fight at Adobe Walls, 308. 
Fight with the Sac and Fox, 97. 
Finerty, John F., 317. 
Fu-st Cavalry, 109. 112, 114, 115. 
First Dakota Cavalry, 198. 
Fisher, 223 ; of Bent's Fort, 308. 
Fitzpatrick. Thomas, 95, 96. 
Fitzpatrick treaty, 28, 69, 72, 96. 
Five Years a Dragoon, etc., Lowe, 115. 
Flat War Club, 48, 49. 
Fleming, Lieutenant, 100. 
Florida, prisoners sent to, 315. 
Flying, 382. 

Food scarcity in Denver, 150. 
Ford, Captain, 71. 
Ford, Colonel, 236. 
Forsyth, Colonel George A., 267. 
Fort Adobe. 45. 
Fort Atkinson. 110, 116. 
Fort Cobb, 122, 288, 294. 
Fort Colhns, 126. 
Fort Connor, 203, 204, 205. 
Fort Cottonwood, 147, 250. 
Fort Dodge. 237, 249, 310. 393. 
Fort Ellis, Montana, 379. 
Fort EUsworth, 237. 



INDEX 



423 



Port Fetterman, 196, 316, 348. 

Fort Harker, 238, 249, 250. 

Fort Hays, 249, 250, 267. 

Fort Keamy, 95, 108, 117, 123, 147. 215. 

222 250. 
Fort Keogh, 370. 373. 395. 397. 411. 416. 

417. 
Fort Laramie, 27, 95, 100, 101, 103, 115, 

117. 121, 124, 145, 187, 195. 196. 204. 

215, 222. 348. 355. 
Fort Laramie treaty, 96. 
Fort Lamed, 116, 121, 126, 138. 140, 

145, 238. 243. 
Fort Leavenworth, 104. 106. 112. 115. 

220 249. 
Fort Lyon, 36, 119, 125, 141. 143. 145. 

160, 169. 
Fort McPherson, 250, 307. 
Fort Phil Kearny, 206, 221 et seq. 
Fort Phil Keamy Fight, 200. 
Fort Pierre, 8, 106. 
Fort Rankin, 176. 
Fort Reno, 196, 222. 349, 384, 385. 
Fort Riley, 140, 238. 
Fort Robinson, v, 347, 384, 385, 394. 

400, 401, 403, 411. 
Fort Robinson Outbreak (1879). 399. 
Fort Sedgwick, 176, 251. 
Port C. F. Smith, 222. 
Port Soddy, 116. 
Port Sodom. 116. 
Fort Wallace, 251. 
Port Washaki, 385. 
Port Wise, 121, 124. 
Fort Wise treaty, 125. 
Port Zarah, 237. 239. 
Fossil Station, 244. 
Pour Spirits, 352. 

Pom-th Cavalry, 112, 124, 349, 352. 385. 
Pouts, Captain, 197, 215. 
Fowler, Jacob, 35. 
Fox Soldiers (see Kit Fox Soldiers). 
Fox Tail, 237. 
Frapp Battle, 93. 
Fremont, General J. C. 74. 
Fremont, Nebraska, 77. 
Fremont's Memoirs, 93. 
Fremont's Orchard, 134. 
French Canadians, 116. 
French trader, 222. 
French trappers and traders, 4. 
Frenchman's Fork (of the Republican). 

180, 394. 
Prog Lying on the Hillside, 54. 
Fry, General James B., 281. 
Furey, Major. 349. 

G 

Ganier, 108, 111. 

Gantt, 94. 

Gay, 250. 

Geier, George, 235. 

Genoa, Nebraska, 123. 

Gens de I'arc, 4. 

Gens du serpent, 4. 

Gentle Horse, 49, 54, 208. 355. 



George-Flying-By, 382. 

Germalne family, 313. 

Gerry, Elbrldgc, 127, 150. 

Gerry's ranch, 151. 

Getty, Lt., 416. 

Ghost dance, 417. 

Ghost Man, 389. 

Gilpin, Lieutenant Colonel, 93. 

Glrard, F., 342. 

"Giving presents to one another acroaa 

the river," 59. 
Glendlvo, Montana, 413. 
Godfrey, General E. S., vi. 260, 334. 
Gold in Colorado (185a-63), 118. 
Good Boar, 15, 110. 252, 275. 
Goose Creek, 316. 
Goose Feather, 329. 
Gordon, Major, 347. 
Gourd (Pumpkin) Butto, 199. 
Governor's Island, New York, 353. 
Grand Island, Nebraska. 95, 108. 
Grant, General, 204, 238. 
Grattan, Lieutenant, 100 el seq. 
Grattan and Ash HoUow (1854-5), 100. 
Gray Beard, 310. 
Gray Hair, 55. 

Gray (Painted) Thimder. 42. 55. 58. 
Greeley, Colorado, 29. 
Greenwood, Commissioner. 120. 
Greer, Captain, 219. 
Grey Eyes, 289. 
Grierson, General, 289. 
Griflenstein, William, 261. 
Grimm, Corporal Henry, 218. 
Grove of Timber River, 108, 174. 
Grover, scout, 285. 
Grummond, Lieutenant, 223. 
Guerrier, Edmond, 152. 169. 104. 174. 

241. 388. 
Gypsum, 363. 



Hackberry Creek, 153. 

Hail, 356, 357, 359. 

Hair Rope people, 40. 

Hairy Hand, 367. 

Halleck, General, 161, 169. 

Hamilton, 380. 

Hamilton, Captain L.. 251, 289, 352. 

Hancock at Fort Dodge, May, 1867. 237. 

Hancock Campaign, 236. 

Hancock, General, 237 et seq. 

Hanging Woman Creek, 369, 370. 

Hankammer, Sergeant, 219. 

Hamey, General William S.. 100. 104. 

105, 106, 107, 230, 259, 287. 
Hamey-Sanbom treaty, 221. 
Harper's Magazine, 242. 
Harper's Weekly, 343. 
Harrington, Lieutenant, 341. 
Harrying the Indians, 131. 
Hat Creek. 217. 
Hawk, 149. 
Hawk's visit. 352. 
Ha>'nes Creek, 120. 
Haywood, Lieutenant W.. 216. 



424 



INDEX 



Hazen, General, 287, 294. 

He Who Mounts the Clouds, 71. 

Heath, 110. 

Heavy Purred Wolf, 304. 

Henderson, Honorable John B., 259. 

Hennlng, Major, 160. 

Henry, Captain Guy V., 317. 

Herendeen, George, 342. 

Hewitt, J. N. B., 99. 

HidSitsa 2 5. 

High Backed Wolf, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 
212, 213, 218. 

High Bear, 353. 

High Wolf, 356, 359. 

Hines, Doctor, 224. 

History of Colorado, 93, 119, 163. 

History of the U. S. Cavalry, 114. 

History of Western Missions and Mis- 
sionaries, 96. 

History of Wyoming, 214. 

Hoffman, Major, 100. 

Ho hg, 5, 6, 7, 8. 

Hole in the Back, 47. 

Hollow Hip, 43. 

Horse Black, 213. 

Horse Butte, 45. 

Horse Chief, 313. 

Horse Creek, 27, 96, 216. 

Horse Creek treaty, 69, 96, 98. 

Horse for war, preparing, 325. 

Horse Shoe Station, 218. 

Hostility, racial, 96. 

House Executive Document, No. 63, 33d 
Congress, 2d Session, 102. 

House Ridge, 356. 
. Howling Wolf, 55, 253, 323, 413. 

How Six Feathers was named, 18. 

Hudson Bay guns, 39, 48. 

Huerfano River, 35. 

Hiunp (Cheyenne), 370, 376, 381, 396. 

Hump (Sioux), 382. 

Htmter, John, 131. 

Hutchinson County, Texas, 308 

Hyde, G. E., vi. 



Ice, 112, 205, 276. 

Idaho, 221. 

letans, 35. 

Immigrant Indians, 97. 

Indian Bureau, 384, 386, 417. 

Indian Department, 238. 

Indian Land Cessions in the United States. 

97. 
Indian service, 5. 

Indian Territory, 70, 383, 384, 385, 386. 
Indian War of 1864, 136, 145, 177. 
Indian wars, caxise for, 170. 
Indians of To-day, 3. 
Interior Department, 236. 
Iron, 213. 
Iron Jacket, 71. 
Iron Sliirt (Apache), 296, 370. 
Iron Shirt (Cheyenne), 71, 75. 
Iron Star, 380. 
Irwin, Jackman & Co., 131. 



I sa tai', 312. 
Island, 297. 
Island Woman, 256. 
Is' si wun, 68, 88. 
lyott. Sefray, 126. 



Jackson, Bob, 376, 378, 380, 381. 

Jackson, WilUam, 342. 

Janisse, Antoine, 126. 

Janisse, Nicholas, 126. 

Jarrott, 126. 

Jerome, Lieutenant L. H., 380. 

Jicarilla Apaches, 309. 

Jim Pockmark, 71. 

Johnson, Captain Edward, 101. 

Johnson, Captain J. B., 399. 

Jones, 237. 

Journal of Jacob Fowler, 4, 35. 

Journals of A. Henry and D. Thompson, 

94. 
Julesburg, 145, 195, 250. 
Julesbiu-g, attack on, 175; official notices 

of, 179. 
Jumper, Lieutenant-Colonel, 122. 

K 

Kansas, 106, 237, 249. 

Kansas City landing, 14. 

Kansas expedition, 238. 

Kansas Historical Collections, 109, 122, 

269. 
Kansas in the Sixties, 249, 288. 
Kansas Pacific Railroad, 237, 247, 249. 
Kansas River, 98, 114. 
Kansas State Historical Collections, 115. 
Kaw, 78. 

Kearny, Colonel S. W., 95. 
Kearny, Fort, 95, 108, 117, 123, 147, 215, 

222, 250. 
Keeper of medicine arrows, 27, 28, 29, 

42. 
Kennedy, Lieutenant, 182. 
Ketcham, H. T., 129. 
Kichai, 122. 
Kickapoos, 122. 
Kidder, Lieutenant, 251. 
KiUed by a Bull, 280. 
Kills in the Night, 341. 
Kiowa Apaches, 4, 35. 
Kiowa chief (Little Mountain), 31. 
Kiowa Comanches, 4. 
Kiowa Creek, 40. 
Kiowa Padduce, 35. 
Kiowa Woman, 40, 75. 
Kiowas, 4, 10, 32, 39, 43, 49, 50, 75, 80, 

89, 93, 97, 115. 118, 129, 131, 141, 

147, 152, 236, 249, 259, 262, 292. 

308. 
Ki'ra ru tah, 90. 
Kit Fo.xes, 14, 81, 82, 85. 209, 350, 355. 

360. 
Kite Indians, 3. 
KIt'ka hah ki, 77, 80, 99. 
Ko'ka'ka, 77. 



INDEX 



425 



La BontS, Col., 126. 

La Bonte Crossing, Wyoming, 196. 

La'lii ka, 77. 

La Junta, Col., 59. 

La Salle, 72. 

Lake De Smet, 368. 

Lame Deer (man), 376 et scq. 

Lame Deer (place), 376. 

Lame Deer Fight, The, 373. 

Lame Deer River, 374, 375, 376, 379, 382. 

Lame Medicine Man, 58. 

Lame Shawnee, 52, 74. 

Laramie, 100, 104, 106, 117, 215, 217. 

Laramie Plains, 95. 

Laramie River, 95. 

Larocque, 24. 

Larocque's Journal, 24. 

Larpentem-, 94. 

Last Bull, 355, 359, 360. 

Latham, 150, 151. 

Lawton, General, 349, 385. 

Leading Bear, 62. 

Lean Bear, 121, 139. 

Lean Man, 297. 

Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express 

Company, 119. 
Leavenworth, Colonel J. H., 121, 123, 

124, 236, 238, 260. 
Leavenworth, Kansas, 116, 119. 
Left Hand, 141, 161, 166, 215. 
Left Handed Shooter, 369. 
Left Handed Wolf, 363. 
Le sa ta lit'ka, 78. 
Letter from chiefs, 152. 
Lewis and Clark, 3, 22. 
Liberty Farm, 148. 

Life and Adventures of Billy Dixon, 314. 
Life of George Dashiell Bayard, 116. 
Light Hair, 14. 
Lightning Woman, 58. 
Limber Lance, 369. 
List of depredations (January-February, 

1865), 184. 
List of distances from Leavenworth to 

Big Timbers, 247. 
Little Arkansas, 120, 236. 
Little Big Horn River, 207, 319, 331, 

333. 
Little Blue River, 148. 
Little Chief (Arapaho), 292. 
Little Chief (Cheyenne), 71, 370. 386. 
Little Creek, 46, 94, 370. 
Little Goose Creek, 231. 
Little Hawk, 272, 283, 301, 316, 355, 361. 
Little Heart, 126. 
Little Horse, 200, 201, 202, 232, 233, 

235, 365, 396. 
Little Man, 275. 

Little Medicine Lodge River, 389. 
Little Missouri River, 1, 33, 195, 221, 

396, 415. 
Little Mountain, 31, 62, 118, 309. 
Little Old Man, 53, 60, 61. 
Little Powder River, 205, 209, 210. 
Little Raven, 59, 98, 120, 161. 



Little Robe. 80, 289. 

Little Rock, 291. 

Little Sheep River, 369. 

Little Shield, 318, 405. 406, 410. 

Little Thunder, 104. 105. 

Little Wolf, 11, 36, 38. 39, 46, 54, 55, 82. 

107, 184, 229; (Old) 2.3.5. 362. 365. 

383. 386. 387. 388. 389, 390, 391. 

392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397. 398, 

399, 411. 
Little Wolf and Dull Knife (1878-9). 383. 
Lodge-polo Creek, 145. 217. 368. 
Lodge Trail Ridge. 223, 224. 
Lone Bear. 167. 303. 
Lone Wolf. 12. 13. 
Long, 35. 
Long Chin. 15. 16. 17. 18. 27. 88; (Sioux) 

106. 1.50. 
Long Cliin's Strategy. 13. 
Long Hat. 260. 
Long Jaw. 364, 365, 366. 
Loree (Laree, Lorry, Lovoo), agent, 125. 
Lost Leg, 323. 
Loup Fork River, 70, 123. 
Loup River, South. 69. 
Lowe, Percival G., 115. 



M 



MacDonald, Sergeant, 192. 

Mackenzie, General R. S.. 313. 346, 348. 
351, 369, 384. 

McDougall, Captain, 334. 

McKenny, Major T. I., 139, 141. 

McKLnney, Lieutenant, 352, 365. 

Mad Wolf, 81, 136, 338. 

Mail, coats of, 71. 

Man Above. 41. 

Man Afraid of His Horses. 103; (Old) 207; 
(Young) 210. 259; proper Interpre- 
tation of name. 103. 210. 

Man Shot by the Ree. 1.50. 

Man that Walks Under the Ground. 259. 

Mandans. 1. 2. 5. 8, 34. 

Margry, 35, 72. 

Marias River, 105. 

Marshall, F. J., 121. 

Martinez, Andreas. 71. 

Marysville, Kansas. 121. 

Massacre of Confederates by Osage Indiana 
in 1863, 122. 

^fassaeres of the Mountains, 93. 105. 162. 

Maximilian. 5. 

Maxwell. L.. 308. 

Medicine Arrow. 296. 

Medicine arrow keeper. 27. 28. 29. 42. 

Medicine arrows. 14. 22. 24. 42. 53. 58. 
67. 69. 3.55. 

Medicine arrows, capture of, 69. 

Medicine arrows in war. 68. 

Medicine arrows, moves of. 69. 

Medicine Bear. 55. 366. 

Medicine lodge. 42. 43. 81. 

Medicine Lodge Creek. 146. 261. 

Medicine lodge dance. 42. 

Medicine Lodge treaty (1867), 254. 



426 



INDEX 



Medicine Lodge treaty, commissioners 
for, 259. 

Medicine Lodge treaty, council at, 264. 

Medicine man, 13. 

Medicine Snake, 56. 

Medicine Standing Up, 76. 

Medicine war club, 48. 

Medicine Water, 53, 54, 55, 72, 73. 

Medicine Woman, 280. 

Merrill, Reverend Moses, 94. 

Mexican, 12, 44, 64, 199, 200, 237. 

Mexicans, 35, 116, 308. 

Mexico, 32. 

Miksch, L. C, 168. 

Miles, Agent John D., 314, 389. 

MUes, General N. A., 369, 397, 398, 412. 
416. 

Military Division of the Missoiiri, 238. 

Military posts on Platte Biver, 147. 

Miller, Agent Robert C, 114, 115, 118. 

Minneconjou, 102, 103. 

Minneconjou Sioux, 100. 

Minnesota, 1, 122. 

Minnesota Sioux, 123. 

Mississippi River, 72. 

Missouri, Department of the, 195. 

Missouri Intelligencer, 169. 

Missouri River, 1, 5, 8, 32, 34, 100, 198, 
221 316. 

MitcheU, D. D., 96. 

Mitchell, General Robert B., 131, 144, 
145, 149, 180. 

Montana, v, 32, 221, 316. 383, 386. 

Montana Hist. Cont., 26. 

Mooers, Doctor J. H., 267. 

Mooney, James, 34, 44, 45. 

Moonlight, Colonel Thomas, 169, 197, 
215, 216, 217. 

Moore. Doctor R. C, 255. 

Morgan, Tom, 79. 

Mormon, 102, 109, 115. 

Morning Star, 70. 

Morning Star (Dull Knife), 410. 

Morrow's ranch, Jack, 250. 

Mountain, 62, 63, 64, 118. 

Mouse's Road, 11, 12, 13. 

Moving Whirlwind, 99. 

Mud Springs, 186. 

Muddy Creek, 225, 379. 

Murie, Captain James, 256. 

Murray, 308. 

Museum of the Military Service Institu- 
tion, 353. 

Mussey, Captain, 150. 

My Life on the Plains, 240, 242. 250, 254, 

N 

Nadouessi of the plains, 34. 

Neal, Colonel, 314. 

Nebraska, 69, 123, 215, 217, 221, 394. 

Nebraska Historical Society Publications, 

94, 95, 196. 
Negro (Black White Man). 213. 
New Mexican troops, 308. 
New Orleans molasses. 64. 
Nez Forces, 383. 



Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, 250. 

Niobrara River, 193, 198. 

No Arm's Creek, 156. 

Noisy Walking, 410. 

North, Captain L. H., vi, 200, 300, 347, 

351, 352, 353, 354. 
North Dakota, 316, 383. 
North. Major Frank, 195, 197, 198, 200, 

202, 203, 204, 205. 256, 301. 347. 

351, 352, 353, 354. 368. 
North Platte, 249. 
North, Robert, 128. 
Norwood, 380. 
Nimiber of Indians In Custer fight. 343. 

O 

O'Brien, Captain N. J., 176. 

Official Records of Union and Confederate 

Armies, 121, 140, 148, 150, 151, 184. 

195. 204, 236. 
Ogallala, 95, 103, 221, 225. 
Ogallala Sioux, 207. 
Ogallala (town), 394. 
Ojibwa, 6. 

Oklahoma, v, 385, 388. 
Old Bark, 97. 
Old Bear, 341, 353. 
Old Bull Bear, 208. 
Old Little Wolf, 235. 
Old Man Afraid of His Horses, 207. 
Old WWrlwind, 16, 17, 97. 99. 100. 
Olney, Lieutenant, 168. 
Omaha scouts, 195. 
O mis'sis, 45, 46. 
O'Neal, T., 342. 
On the Border with Crook, 317. 
One Bear, 245, 248, 249. 
One Eye, 167. 
One Eyed Antelope, 23. 
Orchard, 134. 
Oregon, 94, 95, 221. 
Osages, 57, 78, 98, 99, 122. 
Otis, General Superintendent, 150. 
Otter Creek, 368. 
Overland Stage Line, 197. 
Overland Stage Road, 207. 
Overland Stage to California, 119, 150. 



Packer, 291. 

Page. Major, 237. 

Pa hOk', 77. 

Painted Rocks, 374, 375. 

Painted Thunder, 225. 

Pai'yo he. Powder River, 23, 24, 33. 107. 
193, 196, 197, 198, 199, 202, 203, 
204, 205, 207, 210, 217, 221, 222, 
223, 225, 235, 236, 251, 316, 349. 

Palladay. Leon, 126. 

Palmer, Captain H. E., 196, 198, 200, 202. 

Panhandle of Texas, 45. 

Panther, 201, 202. 

Parkman, Francis, 104. 

Parmeter, Captain, 141, 146. 

Pawnee Fork, 98, 118, 240, 242, 243, 249. 



INDEX 



427 



Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales, 198. 
Pawnee Killer, 149, 175, 250, 251, 259, 

271. 
Pawnee Loups, 71. 
Pawnee Man, 245, 248. 
Pawnee scouts, 195, 196, 346. 
Pawnees, 4, 14. 15, 16, 17, 18, 35, 39, 

42, 69. 75, 76, 80, 93. 
Pawnees moved South, 70. 
Peace with the Kiowas, 59. 
Peck. R. M.. 115. 
Penetetlika band. 35. 
People of the Bow, 4. 
Perry. J. D., 249. 
Pettfir, Reverend R., 2. 
Picket, 17. 

Pike, General Albert. C. S. A., 122. 
Pile of Bones. 303. 
Piles of Driftwood. 61. 
Pine Ridge. 403. 404, 409, 411. 
Pine Ridge Agency, 347. 402. 409, 410. 

411. 
Pipe sent to allies, 174. 
Pipes. 10. 
Pita hau i'rat, 77. 
Placido, 71. 
Plan of Cheyenne camp. Sand Creek, 

165. 
Platte Bridge, 198. 210, 211. 215, 217, 

218 
Platte Bridge Fight (1865), 207. 
Platte Road. 249. 
Platte River. 29. 32, 45, 69. 94. 95, 100, 

104, 108, 109, 111, 117, 119. 121, 

124, 125, 196, 211, 217, 221, 236, 

249 250 251 399. 
Platte River. North. 27, 33. 104. 210. 211, 

216. 218, 348, 394. 
Platte River. South, 10. 20, 29. 35. 36, 

46. 80, 112. 115, 116, 210, 394. 
Plenty Camps. 225. 226. 
Plenty of Bull Meat. 302. 
Plenty of Horses, 245. 248; (Sioux), 417. 
Plenty of Old Camps, 98. 99. 
Pliley, A. J., 269. 
Plover, 72. 
Plimib, Colonel. 211. 
Plunder in the camps, 183. 
Point of Rocks. 141. 151. 
Pole Creek. 369. 
Ponca. 36. 
Ponca Woman. 49. 
Poor (Lean) Bear, 121. 
Pope. General. 236. 
Porcupine. 56. 254. 

Porcupine Bear. 45. 46, 52, 53, 56, 74, 94. 
Porcupine Bull. 280. 
Potawatomi, 90. 99. 
Powder River (pai'yo he). 23. 24, 33. 

107. 193, 195. 196, 197. 198. 199. 

202. 203. 204. 205, 207, 210. 217. 

221, 222, 223, 225, 235, 236, 251, 

316, 349. 
Powder River Expedition. 195. 
Powder River Valley, 357. 
Powell. Captain, 223. 
Prairie Apaches. 98, 116. 



Prairie Bear. 275. 

Prairie Dog Creek. 23. 228. 368. 

Pratt. Captain. 315. 

Present Stale of Hudson's Bay, The, 36. 

Price, M. T.. 332. 

Prisoners given up. 153. 

Pueblo, Colorado, 120. 

Pumpkin Butt«s, 196. 199. 

Pumpkinsoed Creek. 186. 

Punished Woman's Fork. 394. 

Pushing Ahead. 10. 11. 49. 

R 

Raccoon. 134. 

Racial hostility. 96. 

Raiding along Platto. 174. 

Raids on emigrant road, 148. 

Ranches raided on Platte, 181. 

Randall, Major, 355. 

Randall, Todd. 348. 

Rattlesnake Butte. 413. 

Rattlesnake Creek. 263. 

Record of Engagements, 289. 317, 334. 

348. 
Red Bead, 251. 
Red Bird. 76, 410. 411. 
Red Cherries. 304. 
Red Cloud. 199. 223. 225, 346. 348. 
Red Cloud Agency, 349. 399, 401. 
Red Hair, 294. 
Red Leaf (Sioux). 106. 
Red Moon, 289. 
Red Paint River, 194. 
Red Plume (Sioux), 106. 
Red River of North. 1. 
Red River of Texas. 10. 45. 
Red Shields. 14. 47. 53. 55. 90, 209. 210. 
Red Skin. 71. 
Red Tracks. 45. 
Red War Bonnet. 326. 395. 
Red Winged Woodpecker. 362. 
Rees. 1. 2. 33. 
Reno Creek. 318. 
Reno. Major M. A.. 333. 
Report Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 

108. 111. 114, 123, 125. 127. 238. 
Report Committee Conduct of War, 161. 

162. 
Report Joint Special Committee, 132, 137. 

159, 168. 
Report Secretary of Interior, 120, 148. 

150. 151. 152. 153. 155. 238. 240. 

242. 244. 288, 289. 
Republican River. 60. 77, 87. 98. 119, 

120, 125, 127, 236. 237. 250. 251. 

394. 
Reynolds. Charles B., vi. 
RojTiolds, General J. J., 334. 
Richard.son, A. D.. 119. 
Richmond, Lieutenant. 168. 
Ridge men band. 58. 
Rio Grande. 35. 
Rising Sun. 55. 
Roan Bear, 338. 

Rock Forehead. 58. 88. 237, 296. 
Rocky Mountain Life, 94. 



428 



INDEX 



Rocky Mountains, 221. 

Rolling BuU, 225, 226. 

Roman Nose, 204, 215, 240, 241, 268. 

275. 
Roman Nose Thimder, 293. 
Root, Lieutenant-Governor, 260. 
Root, The Overland Stage to California, 

119, 150. 
Roper, Miss, 148. 
Rosebud River, 316, 349, 369. 373. 374. 

381, 411. 
Ross, Captain, 71. 
Ross, Senator, 260. 
Rotten Grass Creek, 370. 
Rowland, James, 403, 409, 410. 
Rowland, William, 101, 109, 347, 351, 

385, 410, 417. 
Rowland, William, Jr., 320. 
Rowland, WilUs, 413, 417. 
Royal, Colonel, 300. 
Running Water, 394, 399. 
Rush Creek, 187. 



Sac and Fox, 90, 97, 98, 99, 100. 

Sacred arrows, 79. 

Sacred hat, 88, 355. 

Sage, R. B., 94. 

Saint Labre's Mission, 369. 

St. Mary's River, 32. 

St. Peter's River, 34. 

St. Vrain, Colonel, 104, 308. 

Salina, Kansas, 125, 140, 146. 

Saline Fork, 125, 307. 

Salt Lake City, 204. 

Salt Plain, 146. 

Salt Spring, 146. 

Sanborn, General, 135, 236. 259. 

Sand Creek, 36. 71, 105, 161, 207. 240. 

242. 
Sand Creek Massacre, v, 159. 
Sand Creek Massacre, Indian account of, 

170. 
Sand Hills, 395. 
Santa Fe Road, 98, 240. 
Sa tank', 44, 62. 
Satan ta, 141. 
Savane', 73, 89. 
Sa,v an i'yo'he, 72. 
Sawyer, Colonel, 198, 202. 
Scabby, 352. 
Scabby Eyelid, 322. 
Scalp, 274. 

Scalping of Thompson, 255. 
Scene of Fort Phil Kearny Fight. 231. 
Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, 35. 
Schuyler, General W. S., vi, 347, 351, 

352. 
Scott Creek, 45. 
Scott, General W. S., 105, 106. 
Scout Creek, 40, 41. 
Scouting for the soldiers, 412. 
Scouts of Powder River expedition, 346. 
Second California Cavalry, 195. 
Second Cavalry, 223, 251. 379. 
Second Infantry, 124. 



Second U. S. Cavalry. 379. 

Sedgwick, Major, 115, 116. 

Seminole, 122. 

Senate, 383. 

Senate Document, 34th Congress. 1st and 

2d Sessions, 102. 
Senate Report No. 708, 46th Congress, 

2d Session, 383, 386. 
Seven Bulls, 59, 60. 

Seventh Cavah-y, 250, 251, 289, 333. 353. 
Seventh Iowa Cavalry, 195, 216. 
Shadier brothers, 311. 
Shadow That Comes in Sight. 369. 
Sha hi'e la, 2. 
Sha hi'e na, 2. 
Sharp, John B., 350. 
Sharp, Sergeant. 378. 
Shavehead, 62. 
Shawnee Creek, 60, 72. 
Shawnees, 72, 73, 87, 122. 
She Bear, 115. 
SheU, 413. 

Sheridan, General P. H., 3, 249, 251, 267. 
Sheridan, Wyoming, 231. 
Sherman, General W. T., 238, 249, 250, 

287. 
Shi shi'ni i'yo he, 193. 
Shoshonl, 4, 32. 69. 213. 225, 349, 358, 

385. 
Shoshoni, Mountain, 32. 
Simla, Nebraska, 186. 
Single Coyote, 293. 
Sioux, 2, 4, 23, 24, 26, 33. 34. 45, 72. 
Sioux, Teton, 34. 
Sioux winter-counts, 34. 
Sits m the Night, 359, 360, 363. 
Sitting Bear, 14, 62. 
Sittmg Bull, 334, 346, 363, 395. 
Sitting Man, 407. 
Six Feathers, 19, 20, 21. 
Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, 195, 196. 
Sixth Cavalry, 124. 
Sixth Infantry, 100. 
Skidi, 69, 70, 77. 
Sky Chief, 190. 
Sleeping Bear, 65. 
Sleeping Rabbit, 370. 
SUm Buttes, 346. 
sum Face, 297. 
Small Man, 30, 31. 
Smallpox, 129. 
Smith, Adam. 123. 
Smith, Jack, 167. 
Smith, John, 164, 261, 308. 
Smoky Hill River. 14, 18, 108, 114, 125, 

127, 236, 244, 249. 
Smoky Hill Road, 247. 
Smoky HUl Stage Line, 247. 
Smoky Lodge, 45. 
Snake Creek, 193. 
Snake Men, 4. 
Snake People, 32. 
Snake Woman, 40, 41. 
Snakes, 4, 32, 35, 218. 
Snakes, Mountain, 32. 
Solomon River, 18, 108, 112, 117. 
Solomon's Fork of the Kansas, 114. 



INDEX 



429 



South Cheyenne River. 217. 

Spaniards, 4, 71. 

Split Eye, 362. 

Spots on the Feathers, 313. 

Spotted Bear, 259. 

Spotted Crow, 167. 

Spotted Elk (Sioux). 106. 

Spotted Hawk, 341. 

Spotted Tail (Sioux), 106, 149. 175. 259. 

spotted Wolf. 25, 27. 192, 254, 278, 324. 

Stai t&n', 1. 

Standing Elk. 259. 385. 

Standing Rock Agency, 382. 

|Sy'^M"'237%38.239.240,241, 

242. 244, 245, 249, 260. 261. 
Stansbury's ExploratioT^QS- 
Stanton, Secretary of War. 236. 
Star, 140, 278. 
Starving Bear, 139. 
Starving Elk. 82, 272. 
Stations along Platte River 191. 
Stewart, Captain G. H., 109. 
Stillwell, Jack, 274. 
Stone Calf, 313. 
Stone Forehead, 10. 
Stone Teeth, 313. 
Storm, 98. , oc« 

Striped Stick Creek, 356. 
Strong Left Hand 401 403. 
Stuart, Lieutenant J. t.. a., nt. 
Stump, 362. 
Sturgis, Captain, 116. 
Suh'tai. 1, 2, 6, 40, 68. 
Sullivant HiUs. 222, 223. 
Sully, General Alfred, 195. 
Summer on the Plains A,2^l. 
Sumner, Colonel E. V-. ni. 
Sumner Campaign (1857), lu/. 
Sun Maker, 57, 126. 
Surprise River, 193. 
surrender of Two Moon's band. 369. 
Sils'son i, 4, 32. 
Sweetwater, 218, 260. 
Sweet Water Bridge, 218. 
Sweet Water River, 221. 
Swift Bear, 348. 
Sylvestro. 260. 



?S''?uS!r5".e?8riS''iv..300.35.. 

Tall Sioux. 304. 

?Sg]I°Ha&:'275. 389. 394. 401. 402 

410. 
Tappan. Colonel, 259. 
Tappan, trader, 237. 
Ta wi ta da hl'la sa, 79. 
Taylor. Conamissioner N. G., ^o». 
Taylor. Joseph H.. 128. 
Ten Bears. 260. 
Ten Eyck. Captain. 224. 
Tenth Infantry. 124. 
Tenth U. S. Cavah-y. 250. 



TmWnQ on the Plains. 243. 
TenuTe of Land Among the Indians, 120. 
Terry. General A. H., 316. 
Tesson, 104. 
Texans, 121, 122. 
Texas. 32. 34. 35. 45. 237, 240. 
Texas, Comprehensive JItstory of. /i. 
Texas, Oldham County, 72. 
Texas Rangers, 71. 
Thickwood, 181. 
Third Cavalry. 399. 
Thompson, William, 254. 
Three Bears, 354. 
Timber Creek, 181. 
Tobacco (Arapaho). 293. 
Tobacco (Cheyenne) 252 
To'hau s6n (Little Mountain), 62 118^ 
Tongue River, 33. 193, 200, 201, 202. 
210 223, 226, 229, 316, 368. 369. 
370'. 372, 373, 379. 
Tongue River Canyon. 225. 
Tongue River Indian Reservation, Mon- 
tana, 411, 417. 
Tonkawas, 71. 
Toucliing Cloud, 71. 
Train wreck at Plum Creek, 255. 
?raiS wreck. Porcupine's account of. 

Transactions of Kansas State Historical 

Society, 218. 
Travel up the Platte River. 147. 
Treaty of 1851, 96. 
"Treaty Grounds," 59. 
Troops at Sand Creek 163 
Troops killed at Fort Rankin, 177. 
Trudeau, 280. 
Tsau i', 77. 
Tsis tas'tas, 1, 2. 67. 
Turkey Creek, 108. 

Turkey Leg, 254, 259. 

Turtle's Road. 367 

Twenty-second Infantry, 379 382. 

Twenty-seventh Infantry, 2~^. 

Twiss, Agent Thomas b.. 111. 

Two Bulls, 352, 362, 365. 

Two Butte Creek, 61. 

Two Buttes, 167. 

Two Crows, 56. 274, 301. 

Two Face (=Big Crow) 181 

'^-%r3%?'S"3eJ 3^0^''' ^^•^' 

373, 396. 
Two Moon's band, 346. 
Two Tails. 107. 
Two Thighs, 81, 167, 184. 
Tyler, Captain, 380. 
Tyler, Wilham, 311. 



U 

Ugly Face, 97. 
Umfreville, 35. 
Union Pacific Railroad 249 

Upper Arkansas Ageno , 1^&- 
Upper Missouri, 124. 
Upper Platte, 111. ^5 

Upper Platte Agency. 90. lU. l-^. 



430 



INDEX 



Upper Platte Bridge, 107. 
Utes. 4. 5. 18, 71, 119, 124, 125. 



Van Winner, 129, 144. 

Verendrye, 34. 

Verendrye Journal, 4. 

Verendryes, 4. 

Village Indians of the Missouri, 2, 5, 33. 

Visiting Creek, 356. 

W 

Wacos, 71. 122. 

Walker. Colonel. 195, 196, 202. 203, 204, 

205. 
Walking Calf, 352. 
Walking Coyote. 11. 36. 37, 38, 39, 53, 

54. 55. 
Walking on the ground, 313. 
Walking Rabbit, 225. 
Walking Whiriwind, 352. 
Walking White Man, 225, 370. 
Walks Last, 326, 367. 
Walks on Crutches, 369. 
Wallen, Major H. D., 141. 
Walnut Creek, 115. 
Wandering Buffalo Bull, 233. 
War Bonnet. 82, 167. 
War Bonnet Ridge, 356. 
War Department, 104. 316, 384. 
War of the Rebellion, 196. 
Ware. Lieutenant Eugene F., Ill, 136, 
145, 177. 

Warpath and Bivouac, 317. 

Wars with the Kiowas and Comanches, 

32. 
Wars with the Pawnees. 67. 
Washington, D. C, 125, 388. 

Washita River. 11, 43, 288, 312. 

Ways of warriors. 9. 

Wearing Horns. 77. 

Weasel Bear. 274. 

Weeks. Ralph, 351. 

Weichel. Mrs.. 307. 

Weightman, Colonel. 121. 

Wessels, Captain. 403. 408. 409. 

West Point (Military Academy), 111. 

Western Colorado. 4. 

Western Kansas in 1867. 246, 247. 

Wheatley, 223. 

Wheelan, 380. 

Wheeler, Colonel Homer W., vi, 353, 
354, 355, 417. 

When the Potawatoml helped the Kit 
ka hah ki, 80. 

Where they stood off the Crows, 23. 

Whetstone Agency, 126. 

Whiriwind, Old. 16, 17, 97, 99. 100. 

Whistler, 259. 

WhistUng Elk, 24, 25, 26, 27. 

White Antelope, 53, 60. 61. 71, 127, 166, 
167, 298, 366, 406. 

White Antelope, death-song of, 171. 

White. A. S. H., 260. 



White Bear, 274. 
White Bird, 318. 
White BuU, 26, 112, 213, 276, 334. 363, 

369. 
White Butte, 299. 
White Butte Creek, 180, 299. 
White Clay Creek, 394. 
White Contrary, 276. 
White Cow Woman, 40. 
White Elk, 225, 233, 323, 368. 
White Frog, 365. 
White Hat, 397. 
White Hawk, 379. 
White Horse. 75, 76, 214, 243, 271. 314, 

365, 396. 
White. John Jay, 353. 
White Leaf. 155. 184. 
White Man's Fork. 180, 394. 
White Man's Ladder, 283. 
White Powder, 88. 
White River, 399. 
WMte Shield, 322, 352, 364, 366. 
White Thimder. 274, 370. 
White Weasel Bear, 274. 
White Whiskers, 369. 
Whitfield. Agent J. W., 98. 
Whitney. Chauncey B.. 269. 
Whitney. Chaimcey B., diary of, 269. 
Wichitas. 70. 122. 
Widower. 72. 

Wilcox, Captain. 216. 

WUd Hog. 225. 355, 387, 389, 401, 403, 
404. 

WiUiford, Captain, 198. 199. 

Wilson, William, 269. 

Wind Woman, 192. 

Winnebago scouts, 195. 

Winter-coimts, 24. 

W5kaihe'yunio'he, Antelope Pit River, 33. 

Wolf Chief. 139. 

Wolf Coming Out. 136. 

Wolf Creek. 49. 50, 61. 52, 54, 57, 289. 

Wolf Fu-e, 108, 111, 117. 

Wolf Friend. 283. 

Wolf in the Middle. 245. 248. 

Wolf Left Hand. 229. 

Wolf Lying Down. 65, 226. 

Wolf Mountains. 320. 

Wolf Road. 50. 

Wolf Robe. 156. 

Wolf Satchel. 358. 

Wolf Sleeve. 260. 

Wolf Voice. 396. 

Wood, 81. 

Wooden Leg, 88. 369. 

Wool Woman, 369, 370. 372. 

Wynkoop, Major, 139, 152, 159, 170, 
237. 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244. 
288. 

Wynkoop, Major, Criticism of. 160. 

Wyoming, 316. 



Yanktons. 123. 
Yellow Bear. 82. 
YeUow Boy. 62. 



INDEX 431 

Yellow Eagle, 318, 352, 361, 365, 367. Yollowstono River, 32, 33, 195. 221, 316. 
YeUow Hair, 62. 379, 397. 

Yellow Horse, 260. Young, A. L., 3:}2. 

YeUow Nose, 80, 189, 299, 338, 362, 364. Young niackblrd. 323. 

366. Young, Charles, 332. 

Yellow Shield, 167. Young Man Afraid of His Horses, 210. 

YeUow Shirt, 55, 56, 115. Young Spotted Wolf, 396. 

Yellow Wolf, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 49, Young Two Moon. 320. 349. 355, 356. 

53, 73, 167, 298. 360, 361. 362. 363, 364, 367. 

YeUow Wolf (YeUow Coyote). 118. Younger Bear. 297. 



314-77-1 



ill 



